District Draws |
Ohio High School Tennis
June 18, 2013: The problems with accessing this web site are not subsiding so it is time to switch Internet Service Providers. I will be switching to GoDaddy.com, which has worked out well for my PlatformTennisZone.com site and for the site that I created for the Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA.net). Hopefully there will not be service interruptions but please be aware that it could happen.
On the good news front, this web site continues to gather momentum in usage and attention. It is now the top ranked search result for "Ohio High School Tennis" on Google. This puts the site higher than the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) and the major Ohio newspapers. I did not think it would ever be possible to surpass the OHSAA. This may be helpful in securing more advertisers.
June 13, 2013: Updates will now be infrequent for the next few weeks because there is less news and because I need to jump to other priorities. If you have any high school-related tennis news to share, please send it my way.
I will begin working on the girls tennis season in about a month. If there are features that you really like or things that you would like to have changed, please let me know by emailing me or by sending me a Feedback.
I have received several very nice thank you letters and comments over the last few weeks and those are always appreciated. These comments are always shared with my wife, who wonders why I spend so much time on this project.
I am largely maxed out on the areas of the state that I can cover. I will, however, consider adding another region if there are multiple coaches and players who become members, and if there are indoor clubs in that region that are interesting in advertising. Currently, this web site is a massively time-consuming "advanced hobby", and I need to make it more of a business if it is to continue in the long-term.
As you purchase tennis apparel and gear over the summer, please use my link for Midwest Sports and by using the code, GERBER. I benefit from each order that is placed via this link. Please use this code on any order, but note that if it is a clearance item, then you get 10% more off of that item.
June 11, 2013: As a numbers guy, I like to dig deeper into the results. Some may be interested in this, others will not be. The focus today is on three-setters. Of the 6,942 matches in the database for the boys season, 943 (or 13.6%) were three-setters. 897 of those were "played out" while 46 were decided by super-tiebreaks. Of the 897 traditional tie-breaks, the player who won the first set went on to win the match 46.6% of the time. The second set winner won the match 53.4% of the time. The results of matches determined by super-tiebreaks were slightly more one-sided. Those who won the second set won the super-tiebreak 56.5% of the time.
For the girls season, there were 4,886 matches. (Cleveland-area matches were not included for the girls season.) Of those matches, 498 (10.2%) were three-setters. Of the 444 matches that were "played out", 204 (or 45.9%) won the first set and 240 (54.1%) won the second set. There were 54 decided by super-tiebreakers.Twenty-four (or 44%) of those girls winning the first set won the match, and 30 (or 54%) won the second set.
So... The second set winner is favored slightly to win the 3rd set. When a super-tiebreak is used, boys who win the second set have a slightly greater advantage versus when it is "played out". There is no difference in using a super-tiebreak for the girls.
I would like to see high school teams experiment with using a format that is more similar to what colleges use by having three doubles and four singles matches. The doubles matches would be an eight game pro-set and the singles would use super-tiebreaks. This format could give more kids an opportunity to play (10 vs. 7) and it would encourage more doubles play. The amount of time required for a match might be roughly the same since tiebreaks would be eliminated and the doubles matches would be abbreviated.
June 9, 2013: There are three more videos today.
The first video shows the championship point for the Division I Boys Doubles Championship. In this match Upper Arlington's Nate Wallace and Jeffrey Melvin defeated Sycamore's Dylan Stern and Deepak Indrakanti, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. Just click on the picture to view the video.
The second is for the Division II Boys Singles Championship. Cincinnati Country Day's Asher Hirsch defeated his teammate, Patrick Wildman, 6-4, 6-4.
Video three is the championship point for Division II Boys Doubles. Columbus Academy's Abram Schottenstein and Jacob Wareti beat Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Ben Wittkugel and Colin Kenney, 6-1, 6-4.
I did not get a video of the last championship point between Cloverleaf's Jacob Dunbar and Walsh Jesuit's Aaron Sandberg.
June 8, 2013: Today's videos include the OTCA Championship point for Lexington versus Columbus Academy and the group gathering after the Upper Arlington versus Copley match. (I did not realize the Court 1 match was about to finish.)
The Division I celebration began after Upper Arlington's Stu Little defeated Copley's Andrew Ong, 6-3, 6-1. Click on the photo to link to the video. (Note that the video for the UA match was taken through the screens.)
Lexington's Jake and Matt Youse defeated Columbus Academy's Ryan Jung and Shrikar Kundar, 6-2, 7-5, to secure the win for Lexington.
Please be aware that if you have access to the Tennis Channel, the NCAA Division I Tennis Championship will be shown today at 2:30pm and repeated at 8:00pm. This alert was posted on ZooTennis this morning.
June 7, 2013: This is the first edition of the Gerber Analytics' All-Ohio Boys Tennis Team.
Gerber Analytics' All-Ohio Boys Tennis Team |
|||
| Division I - Singles | |||
 Jacob Dunbar Westlake |
 Aaron Sandberg Walsh Jesuit |
 Stu Little Upper Arlington |
 Canyon Teague Gahanna |
 Jeff Schorsch Perrysburg |
 Vince Anzalone Willoughby South |
 Luke Tsai Mason |
 Zach Berry Springboro |
| Division II - Singles | |||
 Asher Hirsch Cin. Country Day |
 Patrick Wildman Cin. Country Day |
 John Larkin Seven Hills |
 Jad Abdul-Aal Warren JFK |
 Mason Dragos Lexington |
 Joel Montgomery Worth. Christian |
 Garrett Gardner Poland Seminary |
|
| Division I - Doubles | |||
 Nate Wallace Upper Arlington |
 Jeffrey Melvin Upper Arlington |
 Dylan Stern Sycamore |
 Deepak Indrakanti Sycamore |
| Disivion II - Doubles | |||
 Abram Schottenstein Columbus Academy |
 Jacob Wareti Columbus Academy |
Ben Wittkugel Cin. Hills Chr. Aca. |
Colin Kenney Cin. Hills Chr. Aca. |
After accumulating almost 7,000 match results over the season, the database has provided me with the ability to identify my own list of the top boys in the state. Note that this is not the Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association list.
Why create my own? I think the OTCA list is rather mechanical in how it's done. If a player reaches the semi-finals, he is on the first team, and quarterfinalists are on the second team. If a player gets an unfavorable draw in the first round, then he might not receive any recognition. I realized that a change was necessary back in 2011 when both Michael Fredricka and Colin Bernier drew Chris Diaz (2nd round) and Ian Wagner (1st round), respectively. If the draw was seeded, it is likely that the four of them would have played in the semi-finals against each other. Michael and Colin are now playing division 1 tennis for Notre Dame and Dayton, respectively. Chris plays for OSU and Ian for Emory.
My list also considers District results for these players (but it is still required that they reach States).
Do I plan to have a Second Team or Honorable Mention List? Not this season, but it will be considered for the future.
I also thought that I had a good opportunity to showcase these players. Pictures are shown for most and player profiles are available for some of the players (i.e. Canyon Teague), The player profiles include their 2013 results. Please note that I am accepting pictures for the boys who do not have them.
Congratulations to these players.
June 6, 2013: This is a long update. Each year, I identify the top coaches in central Ohio based on how well they coached on their three set matches. There are also a few more photos from States and the OTCA Tournament.
| School | Coach | Wins | Losses | Total | % |
| Centennial | Barbara Stevenson | 6 | 1 | 7 | 86% |
| Grandview | Ray Corbett | 4 | 1 | 5 | 80% |
| Columbus Academy | Jeff Wartsler | 9 | 3 | 12 | 75% |
| Watkins Memorial | Shawn Walter | 12 | 4 | 16 | 75% |
| Beechcroft | Daphne Hess | 10 | 4 | 14 | 71% |
| Thomas Worthington | David Albert | 5 | 2 | 7 | 71% |
| Ready | Jen Donaldson | 7 | 3 | 10 | 70% |
| Franklin Heights | Robert Adams | 6 | 3 | 9 | 67% |
| Gahanna | Chris Schwinnen | 6 | 3 | 9 | 67% |
| Hilliard Davidson | Steve DeDent | 10 | 5 | 15 | 67% |
| Reynoldsburg | Mark Mathias | 10 | 5 | 15 | 67% |
| Upper Arlington-B | Erick Iskersky | 4 | 2 | 6 | 67% |
| Walnut Ridge | Andrew Hollis | 4 | 2 | 6 | 67% |
| New Albany | Marc Thomas | 9 | 5 | 14 | 64% |
| Jonathan Alder | Ryan Swinehart | 10 | 6 | 16 | 63% |
| Whetstone | Bucky Walters | 8 | 5 | 13 | 62% |
| Village Academy | Scott Gales | 9 | 6 | 15 | 60% |
Why three-set matches? The reasons include: the competition is of similar ability; three-setters take place near the end of the match when the coach is not occupied with four other matches; and the coach has had time to evaluate the strengths and weakness of the opponents and advise his or her players on the best strategy.
Congratulations to the coaches included in the table. Each has a 60% or better winning percentage in three-set matches. (Five additional coaches had winning, three-set records.)
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Pictures (l-r, starting on row 1): Stu Little, Kevin Brown, Eric Alexander, Eric Hunter-Peter Pema, Andrew Ong, Mason Dragos, Miguel Cepeda, Canyon Teague. - Click to enlarge |
|
Being on this list every once in awhile is probably better than never being on it, but again, it is just one of many different ways of looking at the season. Personally, if I were on this list, I would sprint to my AD's office and use it as definitive evidence of my great coaching ability; otherwise, it might not come up in our next conversation.
Today's pictures include: Upper Arlington's Stu Little, St. John's Jesuit's Kevin Brown, Columbus Academy's Evan Alexander, Upper Arlington's Eric Hunter and Peter Pema, and Copley's Andrew Ong from the OTCA Tournament. From the State tournament: Lexington's Mason Dragos, Mason's Miguel Cepeda, and Gahanna's Canyon Teague.There were additional articles written about the OTCA Tournament and States. Click on the ThisWeekSports.com reporters' links to go to their stories - Dave Purpura and Frank DiRenna.
Tomorrow, I identify the Gerber Analytics' All-Ohio Tennis Team for Division I and Division II.
June 5, 2013: Just a few more photos and then onto the videos of the championship points.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Pictures (clock-wise): Nate Wallace-Jeffrey Melvin, Garrett Gardner, Brandon Griffin, Matt-Jake Youse - Click to enlarge |
|
Advertorial: Our family switched to DIRECTV before the Australian Open to take advantage of their outstanding coverage of several of the major tennis events (and to save a few dollars). We have enjoyed it immensely for tennis and for TV watching in general. If you begin a subscription to DIRECTV and include mention of our account number, then we can both deduct $10/month from our bills for 10 months. Send a Feedback if you are interested in knowing more. If our account maxes out on the number of people who do this with us, then the first person who does it with us will get the next group of accounts.
June 4, 2013: There are a few more photos from States and the OTCA Championship to share and then I'll jump into more analytics and the videos.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Pictures (clock-wise): Jacob Dunbar, Jacob Wareti-Abram Schottenstein, Ryan Bibo, Adam-Kent Seitz - Click to enlarge |
|
Today's photos include Cloverleaf's Jacob Dunbar, Columbus Academy's Jacob Wareti and Abram Schottenstein, Dublin Jerome's Kent Seitz and Adam Seitz, and Bishop Watterson's Ryan Bibo. All of these were taken at States.
There are also a few new photos for the Top Players Report for the Northeast District.
If you have not reviewed the mock seeding list that I created before the tournament, please do so by clicking here. I have received a number of positive comments about it. As we know, the Division II tennis draw is broken. There cannot be five number 1 and five number 2 seeds. Having four equal districts (as wrestling does) would alleviate some of the problems but seeding (as it is done in wrestling) is a great solution. We need to borrow ideas from wrestling. Wrestling. Wrestling. Wrestling....
I'm happy -- I now get to sleep in past 5:30am for the first time since match play started in early April.
June 3, 2013: Conditions for Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association were perfect yesterday as Upper Arlington defeated Sycamore and Copley to win the Division I State Championships. Lexington beat Beachwood and Columbus Academy for the Division II crown. The Boys OTCA Championships were held at the extremely nice, new Reynoldsburg courts.
 |
 |
Pictures (l-r) OTCA Results, Lexington - Click to enlarge |
|
All of the detailed information on the Previous Day Match report is available for "free" for the next few days. Click here to see the report.
To zoom in on the large poster that was used at the tournament, click here.
Among the top players, Upper Arlington's Stu Little defeated Sycamore's Nakul Narendran and Copley's Andrew Ong; Upper Arlington's Jeffrey Melvin beat Sycamore's Yuri Karev; Upper Arlington's Brandon Griffin defeated Sycamore's Alex Taylor; Cincinnati Country Day's Asher Hirsch beat Columbus Academy's Jacob Wareti and Beachwood's Karan Gill; Lexington's Mason Dragos defeated Columbus Academy's Jacob Wareti; Cincinnati Country Day's Patrick Wildman beat Columbus Academy's Abram Schottenstein; and Columbus Academy's Evan Alexander defeated Cincinnati Country Day's Michael Barton.
Please refer to the Upper Arlington web site for their state championship photos. The camera lens that I used for most of yesterday was better suited for long range photos, rather than close-ups, but I switched over to the short range lens after the Lexington vs. Columbus Academy match. Action photos using the long lens will be added over the next few days.
June 2, 2013: It was a windy, but great day for high school tennis yesterday.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Pictures (l-r, first then second row) Jacob Dunbar, Jeffrey Melvin & Nate Wallace, Asher Hirsch, Adam Schottenstein & Jacob Wareti - Click to enlarge |
|
Cloverleaf's Jacob Dunbar and Cincinnati Country Day's Asher Hirsch won Division I and Division II Singles crowns, respectively. Upper Arlington's Nate Wallace and Jeffrey Melvin won the D I doubles championship, and Columbus Academy's Abram Schottenstein and Jacob Wareti were the champions in Division II doubles. The pictures of the champions are shown to the right. All can be enlarged by clicking on them.
There were several articles in the major newspapers. Jarrod Ulrey wrote articles for the Cincinnati Enquirer and Columbus Dispatch. Joe Maxse wrote this article for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
I am off to cover the Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association Championship. There will be more action photos and video over the next two to three days from States and the OTCA Championship.
June 1, 2013: It was another weird weather day in central Ohio yesterday. All of the results are provided on the OHSAA site via the link above.
 |
Gahanna's Canyon Teague playing against Jacob Dunbar - Click to enlarge |
The picture of Gahanna's Canyon Teague was taken during today's action against Cloverleaf's Jacob Dunbar in their semi-final match. Dunbar won that match, 6-3, 6-4.
I have the championship points on video for three of the four matches. Those will be included online over the next few days.
Articles from around the state include: Cincinnati Enquirer, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Columbus Dispatch, Toledo Blade, and Dayton Daily News.
May 31, 2013: States are today!
I am very pleased to announce that Scarborough East is now a major advertiser on this web site. You will see their ads online in banner rotations as well as on the Top Players and College lists. Scarborough East joins Elysium Tennis, Midwest Sports, Olympic Indoors, and the Greater Columbus Tennis Association as major advertisers. Please patronize these advertisers. Without them, you would not be benefiting from this web site.
There are numerous, great, first-round singles match-ups (which would not happen in the first round if this tournament was seeded). They include: St. Ignatius' Nathan Griffin versus Mason's Miguel Cepeda, Gahanna's Canyon Teague versus Massillon Jackson's Joseph Thomas; and Poland Seminary's Garrett Gardner versus Seven Hills' John Larkin. In doubles, I will be watching Dublin Jerome's Kent Seitz-Adam Seitz versus St. John's Jesuit Kevin Brown-Ryan Brown.
Here are good articles about States from the Columbus Dispatch's Brian Inglis; the Toledo Blade, and from Youngstown's Vindy.com's Steve Ruman.
Good luck! I will be there taking pictures for the web site.
May 30, 2013: States are tomorrow.
| Division 1 | Division II | |
| 1 | Jacob Dunbar, Cloverleaf | Asher Hirsch, CCDS |
| 2 | Jeffrey Schorsch, Perrysburg | Patrick Wildman, CCDS |
| 3 | Aaron Sandberg, Walsh Jesuit | Mason Dragos, Lexington |
| 4 | Zach Berry, Springboro | John Larkin, Seven Hills |
| 5 | Stu Little, Upper Arlington | Garrett Gardner, Poland Seminary |
| 6 | Luke Tsai, Mason | Joel Montgomery, Worthington Christian |
| 7 | Nathan Griffin, St. Ignatius | Jad Abdul-Aal, Warren JFK |
| 8 | Canyon Teague, Gahanna | Weston Noall, Gilmour Academy |
| 9 | Miguel Cepeda, Mason | Matt Brumbaugh, Milton-Union |
| 10 | Cameron Raglin, Reyoldsburg | Alex Warstler, Indian Hill |
| 11 | Joseph Thomas, Massillon Jackson | Ryan Bibo, Bishop Watterson |
| 12 | Dugan Delp, Central Catholic | Aaron Paczak, Lakeview |
| 13 | Alex Taylor, Sycamore | Alex Swick, Lima Central Catholic |
| 14 | Vincent Anzalone, Willoughby South | Manickam Manickam, Perkins |
| 15 | Steven Boslet, Hudson | Jim Magness, Coshocton |
| 16 | Rathnakishore Giri, New Albany | Aaron Ruby, Cambridge |
It is my recommendation that high school tennis start seeding its 32 singles players for the State Tournament. Why? For the same reason that all tennis tournaments have seeding. It is best for the players, fans, and coaches. The two best players should play in the finals -- not in the semi's nor in the quarterfinals.
Some will say that the best player will win anyway and that second place doesn't matter. I disagree. Being a runner-up is a major accomplishment in the state of Ohio, and in some cases, the best player may not win. For example, if the top two players battle for 2 1/2 hours under the hot sun in the semifinals, then the winner could face a relatively fresh competitor. The fresh competitor then has a major advantage.
It is also important to point out that no other high school, college, or professional sport requires its participants to play back-to-back, potentially hours long contests after a 60 minute break. Plus, if it happens on an 85 degree, sunny day in the spring when many of the prior days averaged 60 or 70, the result can lead to an EMS run.
Is seeding possible? Yes, it certainly is for the singles. Please note that the OHSAA Wrestling tournament seeds 16 wrestlers in 14 different weight classes in three divisions for a total of 672 wrestlers. With the tennis information that we have today on this web site, tennis should be able to seed 32 players. Why compare tennis to wrestling? Wrestling is an athlete versus athlete sport just as tennis is. While wrestlers do have more matches than tennis players during the season giving them more "wrestler versus wrestler" comparisons, this can still be done in tennis. If coaches are diligent, they can set-up matches during the season that will offer a sufficient number of competitive matches to allow solid comparisons.
Last year, a hypothetical seeding list was provided using Universal Tennis Ranking. It did a reasonably good job. Now that the Cincinnati and Cleveland-area school results are available via this web site, I have created my own hypothetical seeding list for the singles players. The list above is how I would seed the players. Please don't take offense at being near the bottom of this list. There are likely over 4,500 boys playing varsity high school tennis this season and being anywhere on this list (or on the doubles list) is an enormous honor. I think it is important to post a hypothetical seeding list before the matches start in order to begin a dialog.
Please note that in an effort to provide as much transparency as possible, all of the information on the Top Players Lists is now accessible.
There were three good articles about States in the major papers. Click on the following links: Cincinnati Enquirer article; Cleveland Plain Dealer article; and Dayton Daily News article.
Gerber Analytics members, who qualified for States, automatically receive a "State Qualifier" picture. Please look for me tomorrow to get your picture. If you are a non-member, please email or send me a Feedback by 2:45pm today if you would also like one. I will do this for no-charge.
See you tomorrow.
May 29, 2013: Three more teams were included in the Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association Tournament Final Four. Upper Arlington defeated New Albany; Columbus Academy beat Bexley; and Copley defeated Solon.
Among the top players, Upper Arlington's Stu Little defeated New Albany's C.J. Cash; Copley's Andrew Ong defeated Solon's Brian Yang; and Columbus Academy's Jacob Wareti defeated Bexley's Nathan Katz.
The goals for this web site are to recognize high school tennis players more than any other web site recognizes their sport's players and to provide a "college-like" view of a team's roster and performance. What has been done for the Beechcroft team gets closer to these goals and is what I would like to have for all teams. It includes player pictures along with the rest of their roster information, individual player performance (via the player links), and coach commentary after many matches. If teams are interested in having this level of recognition for their players next year, I would provide a discounted price on a per player basis to do this (if the coach provides me with one payment for the players to be included). If your team has a budget for this, please keep it in mind for next season. (Coach Daphne Hess is a Gerber Analytics member, and I donated the time to include all of the Beechcroft players.) Please send a Feedback with any questions.
Here's another good article about OSU's Blaz Rola from the Columbus Dispatch.
[Note: My website service provider, Netwalk.com, has been having reliability problems recently. Sorry for the inconvenience.]
May 28, 2013: It's time to change gears and reflect on a few changes that have been made for the benefit of high school tennis and a few changes that should be considered.
Four and a half years ago, back in September 2008 (a year and a half before I created this web site), I wrote a document called, Ohio High School Tennis Analysis. That document is here.
I introduced a number of topics that I thought would benefit high school tennis. They included: concerns about the fairness of Division 1 draws; USTA / ITF matches during the high school season; and the location of the Girls' State Finals during home OSU football games.
To elaborate more on the draws, I have been to numerous OHSAA meetings and great care is used to insure that the draws for other sports are done in a fair, random manner. It is frustrating that tennis is not given the same courtesy. While tennis does require a certain structure, randomness could and should be used to determine where the number one seeds and some of the two seeds are placed in the brackets. The same basic draw of pitting the top two players from Central and Southwest against each other in the second round has been done 11 out of the last 12 years (last year it was changed). This year, it's back to the past.
Please note that this document was written before Division II had five Districts. It's simply not possible to create a fair draw with five "one" seeds and five "two" seeds.
On the good news front, Reynoldsburg has 10 new courts which were successfully used for the OTCA State Girls competition, and they will be used for the OTCA Boys competition this Sunday. Hopefully the Reynoldsburg courts will also be used for the second day of Girls States when there are OSU football game conflicts so we never (ever, ever) have another State final at the Hilliard Davidson courts.
Please send me a Feedback if you have any questions about the document.
On the great news front, OSU's Blaz Rola won the NCAA singles crown. Click for the articles in ZooTennis and the Columbus Dispatch.
May 27, 2013: High school tennis is gearing up for the last week of the season.
 |
Dublin Jerome Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Click for an article about Springboro's Zach Berry from the Dayton Daily News.
Ohio State's Blaz Rola is in the finals of the NCAA's today. There are two articles about yesterday's match. Click for the Columbus Dispatch and the ZooTennis articles.
The finals of the Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association for the Central District are tomorrow. It will be Upper Arlington versus New Albany and Columbus Academy versus Bexley.
May 26, 2013: It was a great day for tennis yesterday, and the seeding rounds for States were completed in the Central, Northeast, and Southwest Districts.
 |
Central District Division II State Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
There were several articles about high school tennis in the major newspapers. Click to access the articles from the Columbus Dispatch; Cincinnati Enquirer; and Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Thanks to Geoff Bibo and Misrak Dejene for the D2 State Qualifier pictures. If other districts would like to recognize their state qualifiers on this web site, please email your pictures to me.
Ohio State's Blaz Rola is in the semifinals of the NCAA's. Click for the ZooTennis article.
May 25, 2013: It was another picture perfect day for ice boating at Hilliard Davidson yesterday.
 |
Central District Division I State Qualifiers - Click to enlarge |
I will include group pictures of state participants from all of the districts online. If you have a son or player going to States, please email a picture to me.
Today is the seeding round for States. Congratulations to all of the players who will be participating at States.
May 24, 2013: The Southwest and Northeast started their District matches yesterday. Central's matches start today.
Notable matches from yesterday included: Springboro's Zach Berry defeated Mason's Jeremy Schneider; Seven Hills' John Larkin beat Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Logan Henize; Walsh Jesuit's Aaron Sandberg defeated Willoughby South's Vincent Anzalone; St. Ignatius' Nathan Griffin beat Hudson's Steven Boslet; Massillon Jackson's Joseph Thomas defeated Walsh Jesuit's Matt Miles;
Hudson's Steven Boslet beat Mayfield's Shouta Fukamachi; and Avon's Nico Mostardi defeated Solon's Nam Le.
I will post pictures of the Central District state participants. If other districts would like their state participants to be recognized, please email a picture to me along with the names of the players.
There were three newspaper articles about tennis in today's newspapers. The Columbus Dispatch wrote about the diversity in tennis. These two articles from the Cincinnati Enquirer included information about district play in Division 1 and Division 2.
Good luck to all participants.
May 23, 2013: Just one dual match was played last night. Pickerington North defeated Dublin Scioto, 4-1.
 |
Thomas Worthington Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Central Coaches, I still need a few more votes for the top ten teams. If you are not a member, you may email your vote to me.
Reporter Joe Maxse of the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote this article to summarize the upcoming Northeast District contests. The article also includes a nice photo of Cloverleaf's Jacob Dunbar.
Districts start tomorrow morning. I will start the day at Hilliard Davidson for the Central District Division 1 matches.
May 22, 2013: It was another big tennis night for the top teams in Ohio. Sycamore defeated Mason; Solon beat Hudson; and Upper Arlington beat Dublin Jerome. (The Dispatch printed the Reynoldsburg match that UA played on Monday, but did not include UA's match from last night.)
Central District's Division 2 were finalized on Monday. Worthington Christian's Joel Montgomery and Watterson's Ryan Bibo won the Columbus Academy and Columbus School for Girls sectionals, respectively.
Among the top players, Mason's Luke Tsai defeated Sycamore's Nakul Narendran; Mason's Miguel Cepeda beat Sycamore's Yuri Karev; Sycamore's Alex Taylor defeated Mason's Jeremy Schneider; and Hudson's Steven Boslet beat Solon's Brian Yang. From Monday, Upper Arlington's Brandon Griffin defeated Reynoldsburg's Cameron Raglin.
Virginia beat UCLA, 4-3, in the men's NCAA tournament. Click to read more.
May 21, 2013: Only two dual matches were recorded yesterday. West defeated Whetstone, 3-2, to win the Columbus City League championship, and Pickerington North beat Dublin Jerome, 3-2. The Central District Division II matches were played yesterday, but they are not yet online because they were not included in today's Dispatch.
| Rank | Division 1 | Division 2 |
| 1 | Mason | Cincinnati Country Day |
| 2 | Sycamore | Columbus Academy |
| 3 | Upper Arlington | Seven Hills |
| 4 | Copley | Lexington |
| 5 | St. Xavier | Indian Hill |
| 6 | Springboro | Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy |
| 7 | St. John`s Jesuit | Bexley |
| 8 | St. Ignatius | Hawken |
| 9 | New Albany | Wyoming |
| 10 | Walsh Jesuit | Oakwood |
The fourth of the five weekly Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association Coaches' Poll is to the right. If you are a Gerber Analytics member, please vote for the Top Teams in the Central District. Click to vote.
The OSU Men's team ended their season yesterday with a loss in a great match with UCLA. There are two good articles about the match in the Columbus Dispatch and ZooTennis.
Upper Arlington plays Dublin Jerome tonight in the Division 1 OTCA semi-final.
May 20, 2013:The Sectional Draw results are finally online, and the Central District Division I draws are now available. The draws are random but I wish at least the Singles draw could match up the consensus fourth and fifth best players to compete for States. I was pleased to see that Upper Arlington's Stu Little and Gahanna's Canyon Teague are on the opposite ends of the draw.
The top players were all competing against each other on Saturday. Some of the most interesting matches included: Cloverleaf's Jacob Dunbar defeated Walsh Jesuit's Aaron Sandberg; Mason's Luke Tsai defeated Mason's Miguel Cepeda; Seven Hills's John Larkin defeated Cincinnati Country Day's Patrick Wildman; Cincinnati Country Day's Asher Hirsch defeated Seven Hills' John Larkin; Mason's Miguel Cepeda defeated Mason's Jeremy Schneider; St. Ignatius' Nathan Griffin defeated Avon's Nico Mostardi; Upper Arlington's Brandon Griffin defeated Dublin Scioto's Sean Ferguson; and Upper Arlington's Eric Hunter defeated Dublin Scioto's Sean Ferguson.
There are several great articles about the Ohio State Men's team. Here's one from ZooTennis about OSU's win yesterday against USC. Here's another one from a New York newspaper that was released before the Texas A&M win.
Central's Division 2 Sectionals will finish at 3pm today at the Columbus Academy courts.
May 19, 2013: The good news is that our son, Kyle, graduated from Case Western today in Cleveland. The bad news is that there will not be an update today. I was set to run the update from Cleveland, but early morning hotel connectivity issues immediately caused problems. After completing half the update, I had a hard-stop to leave for Kyle's graduation.
I had planned to run the update after getting home, but the dorm move-out took longer than expected. Rather than try and finish the update while I am half asleep, I will crunch through it tomorrow morning.
When we move Kyle into Emory this summer, at least it will be after high school tennis season.
May 18, 2013: The Sectional semifinals and finals are today.
The detailed results from the Cincinnati Enquirer and Cleveland Plainer Dealer were not complete. Click on the Sectional draws in the above table for more scores.
If you are a member, please vote for the Top Teams in the Central District. Click to vote. Please vote by Monday evening.
Click for an article from the Cincinnati Enquirer about Cincinnati Country Day's Asher Hirsch and Patrick Wildman.
The Ace Report has been updated. Mason's Jeremy Schneider is in the lead, followed by teammates, Nadim Boulos and Young-Jin Kant. Austin Williams of Watkins Memorial is tied with Young-Jin for third.
Good luck to the players in the Sectional semifinals and finals.
May 17, 2013: The good news is that all of the Sectional data from the three major newspapers is now online. The bad news is that the Enquirer did not include any Sectional data and the Plain Dealer only had information from one Sectional. Tomorrow may be another big processing day.
My policy is to include the results that are in the newspapers. I will make an exception to this if you are a coach or parent member and if you provide the scores to me in a specific format. Send me an email if you are interested in obtaining the format. Also note that there are some detailed results via the Sectional links above.
The majority of the highly contested matches will occur in the next round of Sectionals but there were several close matches in the quarterfinals. They included: Dublin Scioto's Sean Ferguson beat St. Charles' Connor Yakubov; Marysville's Gavin Bushong defeated Hilliard Davidson's Matthias Heinz; New Albany's Harrison Lippy beat Pickerington Central's Andy Taylor; and Reynoldsburg's Brandon Person defeated Pickerington North's Cameron Friedman.
Congratulations to all of the players who made it to Districts. The seeding round for Districts takes place tomorrow.
One of my favorite tennis blogs is Colette Lewis' ZooTennis. Click here to read Colette's summary of the Ohio State victory over Texas A&M. Peter Kobelt, Devin McCarthy, and Chris Diaz won their respective matches.
May 16, 2013: It is Sectional Day in the Central District.
 |
Central District D1 State Participants in 2009 - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Cincinnati Country Day's Asher Hirsch defeated Seven Hills' John Larkin.
For several years, I have posted the pictures of the players from the Central District who have participated at States. If other Districts would like to recognize their players, please email those photos to me. Please was an actual camera rather than a camera phone.
Peter Kobelt was featured in an article in today's Columbus Dispatch. The article is here. Also note that Peter is included in the 2009 photo of the Central District state participants above. Eight of those 12 players played (or are playing) collegiate tennis.
Good luck at Sectionals today.
May 15, 2013: Sectional play has started in Cincinnati and Northeast Ohio. This information requires a substantial amount of time to enter so updates will be delayed as Sectionals are played throughout Ohio. Good matches from last night include: Bexley defeated St. Charles; Worthington Kilbourne beat Watterson; Turpin defeated Indian Hill; Taylor beat Finneytown; Norwood defeated Batavia; and Columbus Academy beat Dublin Jerome.
Among the top players, Mason's Luke Tsai defeated Kings's Tristan Nosek; Mason's Miguel Cepeda beat Sycamore's Mustafa Ahmad; Pickerington North's Blaine Carr defeated New Albany's CJ Cash; and Watterson's Ryan Bibo beat Worthington Kilbourne's Jack Klein. Doubles matches are normally not included in this section but some of the top players are getting extra practice before Sectionals. Columbus Academy's Jacob Wareti-Abram Schottenstein defeated Dublin Jerome's Kent Seitz-Adam Seitz.
For member coaches who like to provide their players with the End-of-Year Report for keepsakes, please run this report soon and let me know if any matches have been missed.
Sectionals in the Central District start tomorrow.
May 14, 2013: There were numerous close matches yesterday. Beechcroft defeated Eastmoor Academy; Normandy beat Padua; Ready defeated Fisher Catholic; Reynoldsburg beat Dublin Scioto; and Olentangy Orange defeated Village Academy.
Many of the top players had great matches. Walsh Jesuit's Aaron Sandberg defeated St. Ignatius' Griffin; Mason's Luke Tsai beat Seven Hills' John Larkin; Mayfield's Shouta Fukamachi defeated Hudson's Steven Boslet; Reynoldsburg's Cameron Raglin beat Dublin Scioto's Sean Ferguson; and Walsh Jesuit's Matthew Miles defeated St. Ignatius' Christian Zuber.
While the membership prices for this web site increased yesterday, please be aware that I continue to provide opportunities for readers to earn free memberships. This typically involves doing something technology-related with my Ohio Graduation Test project. Send me a Feedback if you are interested. Please also note that the $27.95 Parent / Fan membership to access the premium areas of the web site for the Boys and next fall's Girls season remains the same price as before. One last thing, if you find a reference where the software states the "old" price, tell me what page it is on and you get a membership for that price.
Tonight's matches include: Watterson versus Worthington Kilbourne; New Albany versus Pickerington North; and Reynoldsburg versus Granville. Again, many of the schedules are old so please check with a player or coach before leaving for a match.
May 13, 2013: There were numerous matches and tournaments that were not included in the newspapers yesterday. Dublin Jerome won the Ohio Capital Conference-Cardinal Division, and Mason won the GMC Tournament. Brush won the Lake Division of the Northeast Ohio Conference Tournament.
 |
Case Western players from Central Ohio - (l-r) Trent Searfoss, Alex Solove, Kyle Gerber, Ben McClarren, Sean Carr (2011 Grad) - Click to enlarge |
The Top Players reports (Central, Northeast; Southwest) were re-shuffled slightly These reports are now back behind the paywall.
We saw hours of great, NCAA D-III college tennis over the weekend. Case Western finished its season against Kenyon in a close, 5-4, loss in a match that included four 3-setters. With our son, Kyle, graduating from Case, this finishes our family's college tennis experience. College tennis (at any level) is a great learning experience for kids. To see all of the central Ohio players competing in college tennis, click here.
The membership prices go up late tonight from $14.95 to $24.95 for the Parents and Players and from $24.95 to $34.95 for the coaches. Please sign-up now to take advantage of the lower prices.
Matches tonight include: Bexley versus Dublin Jerome; DeSales versus Worthington Kilbourne; Mason versus Seven Hills; and Reynoldsburg versus Dublin Scioto.
May 12, 2013: It was another weather day better suited for platform tennis. There were numerous tournaments played, but not all of the results were submitted to the newspapers. In central Ohio, Upper Arlington won the Ohio Capital Conference - Central Division, and New Albany won the OCC Cardinal. In northeast Ohio, Twinsburg narrowly won the Northeast Ohio Conference - River Division with Strongsville as a close second, and Solon won the Valley Division. In dual match play, Oakwood defeated Watterson, and then Watterson beat Archbishop Alter.
Among the top players, Upper Arlington's Stu Little defeated Dublin Coffman's John Buchan;
Hudson's Steven Boslet beat Solon's Brian Yang; New Albany's CJ Cash defeated Olentangy's Austin Karbler; and Watterson's Ryan Bibo beat Archbishop Alter's Alex Witt.
Many of the schedules were entered months ago so it is difficult to know which of these matches are still taking place tomorrow so please check in advance. Matches include: Bexley versus Dublin Jerome; DeSales versus Worthington Kilbourne; Mason versus Seven Hills; and Reynoldsburg versus Dublin Scioto.
May 11, 2013: Most of the matches were rained out last night. Of the ones recorded, Cincinnati Country Day defeated Indian Hill; North Canton Hoover beat Westlake; Seven Hills defeated Summit Country Day; Walnut Hills beat Moeller (no individual scores reported); Pickerington Central defeated DeSales (from previous day); and Whitehall beat Hartley (previous day).
Among the top players, Cincinnati Country Day's Asher Hirsch defeated Indian Hill's Alex Warstler and Westlake's Connor Michelich defeated North Canton Hoover's Robby DeMarco. The detailed results on the Top Players reports are still available to everyone for viewing. Please note that most of the Top Players will be competing at States and I want them to be recognizable to fans. If you are a top player and I do not have a photo for you, I am still accepting them. Just send me Feedback to get my email address.
The web site set a new usage record yesterday (it actually blasted through the old one) as many readers viewed the Top Academic Ohio High School Report. Thanks for viewing and sharing this report. Even though I am not being paid for this work, I really do enjoy knowing that others are benefiting from it. Many were sharing this via Facebook postings. Usage from yesterday is shown in the Ohio map. Compare Northeast Ohio's usage from yesterday versus May 6th's, which was another huge usage data.
The OCC's are today. Watterson also hits the road and plays against Kettering Alter and Oakwood.
May 10, 2013: It was another nice night for tennis. Forty matches were recorded - Central had 19; Northeast recorded 14; and Southwest had nine. Close matches included: Brunswick defeated Mentor; Groveport beat Fisher Catholic; Hilliard Davidson defeated St. Charles; Indian Hill beat Seven Hills; Kenston defeated St. Edward; Massillon Jackson beat Hudson; Summit Country Day defeated Archbishop Alter; and Watterson beat Wellington. There were such a large number of close matches that I am going to open access to the Previous Day Match Results to everyone today.
The top players were active. Seven Hills' John Larkin defeated Indian Hill's Alex Warstler; Dublin Scioto's Sean Ferguson defeated Worthington Kilbourne's Jack Klein; Watterson's Ryan Bibo defeated Wellington's Lincoln Ficek. I botched the links to the Top Players reports (Central, Northeast; Southwest) yesterday so I am making all of the results available to everyone again today.
As many of your know, I am more of an educational enthusiast than a tennis enthusiast. Each year, I create a Top Academic Ohio High Schools document based on how schools perform on the Ohio Graduation Test. For those of you especially interested in education, this year's report is here. I create this report each year primarily to recognize the top academic schools (just as we do for sports), but it is also important for all students to understand how their school compares with others, especially for those interested in going to college. Getting a "B" at one of these top schools is much different than receiving a "B" at a school which is ranked much lower. I went to Miami Trace, which was a reasonably good academic school, but I was very surprised when I was not as prepared for college as many of my college friends. Even though I graduated years ago, I understand many freshmen are still getting shocked during their first year of college when they realize that they were unprepared for the work load and the difficulty of the assignments. It is important to know where your school stands now before that first year of college. In previous years, the Cincinnati Enquirer has summarized this report when it became available around the Thanksgiving holiday. This year, that is doubtful because of the long delay in the release of the data. Note that this is a "work-friendly" or "school-friendly" report just in case that boss or teacher is looking over your shoulder.
Tonight's matches include: Eastmoor Academy versus Worthington Christian; Walnut Ridge versus Centennial; and Independence versus Northland.
May 9, 2013: There were 47 matches recorded from yesterday. Close matches included: Mount Vernon defeated Westerville Central; Rocky River beat Lake Ridge Academy; St. Ignatius defeated Western Reserve Academy; Westland beat Grove City; North Olmsted defeated Bay; and Hudson beat North Canton Hoover. All of the results are here.
Among the top players, Upper Arlington's Stu Little defeated Dublin Coffman's John Buchan; Mason's Miguel Cepeda defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Logan Henize; Mason's Luke Tsai defeated St. Xavier's Matthew Duma; St. Ignatius' Nathan Griffin defeated Hudson's Steven Boslet; and Worthington Kilbourne's Jack Klein defeated St. Charles's Connor Yakubov.
The Top Players Lists for Central, Northeast, and Southwest can be view by everyone today. Normally the detailed match information is only visible for those players who have Player Profiles and for those who sign-in as members. [These links are now active.]
Tonight's matches include: Dublin Jerome versus Pickerington North; Bexley versus Reynoldsburg; Hilliard Davidson versus St. Charles; and Watterson versus Wellington.
May 8, 2013: There were several huge matches last night. They included: Sycamore defeated Springboro; Cincinnati Country Day beat Seven Hills; and Mason defeated St. Xavier. Other close matches were: Conneaut defeated Harvey; Geneva beat Willoughby South; Nordonia defeated Chardon; and Normandy beat Rocky River
The top players were also active. Cincinnati Country Day's Asher Hirsch defeated Seven Hills' John Larkin; Mason's Luke Tsai beat St. Xavier's Matthew Duma; Springboro's Zach Berry defeated Sycamore's Deepak Indrakanti; Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Logan Henize beat Summit Country Day's Nicholas Sanders; Mason's Miguel Cepeda defeated St. Xavier's Matthew Santen; Willoughby South's Vincent Anzalone beat Geneva's Jacob Groce; and Mason's Jeremy Schneider defeated St. Xavier's Andrew Niehaus.
You may have noticed the somewhat non-subtle ads that promote signing up for a Gerber Analytics membership. Please also note that there is a price increase coming. There are a couple reasons for the price increase. The first is that this service is nearing its highest value, so if you enjoy seeing how other teams and players have performed, there is now far more information than what there was at the beginning of the season. The second is to reward those who sign-up now, rather than procrastinate until the end of the season. You may now use Paypal to quickly become a member. Operators are standing by.
Another benefit of membership that is worthwhile to mention is that the Player Profile reports remain online after the high school season. Some players enjoy Googling their names, and the Player Profiles are a prominent way to share the results. Click to see Jacob Wareti's Google Results.
Mason's players now lead the Ace Report. They are: Jeremy Schneider, Nadim Boulos, and Young-Jin Kang.
Tonight is another big night for interesting matches. They include: Bexley versus Pickerington North; Mason versus Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy; St Ignatius versus Western Reserve Academy; Reynoldsburg versus Westerville South; and Gahanna versus Dublin Scioto.
May 7, 2013: Most of the Columbus and Cincinnati-area matches were rained out, but the Cleveland-area had a full slate of matches. Some of the closer matches from yesterday included: St. Ignatius defeated Massillon Jackson; Cuyahoga Falls beat Brunswick; Briggs defeated Mifflin; Medina beat Shaker Heights; and Twinsburg defeated North Royalton.
There was just one match among the top players but it was a significant match. Massillon Jackson's Joseph Thomas defeated St. Ignatius's Nathan Griffin in three sets.
The day after Sectional draws is normally one of this web site's biggest usage days, and yesterday was no exception. There was activity from 18 states, but Ohio had more usage than all of the other states combined. Most of the activity was from the Columbus-metro area, as displayed in the Google Analytics map of Ohio. Given Cincinnati's reputation as a tennis city with the Western & Southern Open, I fully expect it to overtake the other metro areas after a couple of seasons.
The Sectional draws from the other areas of the state continue to be added. Southwest's sectional draws are all online and most of the Northeast's are as well. The link to the Northwest District has been included above, but there are still no draws posted for that district.
Tonight's matches include: Dublin Coffman versus Upper Arlington; Hilliard Bradley versus Hilliard Darby; St Ignatius versus Hudson; and Worthington Christian versus Village Academy.
May 6, 2013: It was another interesting draw. Click for the Central District Sectional Draws for Division 1 and Division 2. Currently the Central and Southwest draws are online. Northeast has one of their sectionals online and Northwest has none.
 |
Olentangy Orange Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
As you review the draws, please be aware that Central is the only District that permits coaches to determine their Sectional location. This is a great situation for the players because it allows coaches to better determine a way for their best players to get to Districts and then onto States. Some sites become better for singles players, while other sites are better for doubles, and many coaches will tailor their location choice based on this. While no system is perfect, I think this approach helps get the best (and most deserving) players to states.
I received several "thanks" from coaches for creating the Matrix Report. This report greatly helps coaches seed the teams for the draws. I am going to make this report available for non-paying users until Tuesday night just in case coaches in the Northeast and Southwest Districts have not seen it. Click for the Central District Matrix Report.
Matches tonight include: Dublin Jerome versus Watterson; St Ignatius versus Massillon Jackson; Mason versus St Xavier; and Beechcroft versus Central Crossing.
May 5, 2013: There were many tournaments throughout the state. The results for many of individual matches (and this required a substantial amount of time to enter) are included online under each team's results page.
 |
Bexley Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
The Sectional draws take place today. I had hoped to reshuffle the Top Players Lists, but I need to spend the day on the Top Academic Ohio High Schools document. Since all of the individual results for each of these players is now online, hopefully this will make it easier for the Columbus, Cincinnati-area, and Cleveland-area draw sites to compare players.
May 4, 2013: There were 32 matches played last night. The more prominent matches included: Walnut Hills defeated Wyoming; Upper Arlington beat Pickerington North; St. Ignatius defeated University School; New Albany beat Worthington Kilbourne; Columbus Academy defeated Watterson; Dublin Coffman beat Dublin Scioto; Solon defeated Massillon Jackson; and St. Charles beat Gahanna. The results for the St. Charles versus Gahanna match were confusing in the newspaper. The headline stated that Gahanna won, 3-2, but the individual matches showed that St. Charles won. SC did win that match, 3-2.
 |
Pickerington North Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Lexington has their invitational today.
The Sectional draw is tomorrow.
May 3, 2013: It was another pleasant evening for tennis. There were a large number of close matches in the central, northeast, and southwest areas of the state. They included: Cincinnati Country Day defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy; Grove City beat Lancaster; Hilliard Davidson defeated Thomas Worthington; Medina beat Twinsburg; North Royalton defeated Avon; Wickliffe beat Kirtland; St. Edward defeated Avon Lake; Hudson beat Western Reserve Academy; and Granville beat Grandview.
Thanks to the coaches who participated in the Coaches' Poll for Central Ohio. The polls for Division I and Division II are listed to the right. This poll was also included in the Dispach today.
Among the top players, St. Ignatius' Nathan Griffin defeated University School's Robert Stroup; Gahanna's Canyon Teague beat Pickerington North's Blaine Carr; Mayfield's Shouta Fukamachi defeated Copley's Jarad Pennington; Cincinnati Country Day's Asher Hirsch beat Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Logan Henize; Indian Hill's Alex Warstler defeated Wyoming's Myles Bourbon; St. Ignatius' Christian Zuber beat University School's Stephen Gillinov; and St. Xavier's Matthew Duma defeated Turpin's Adam Bercz.
Tonight's matches include Upper Arlington versus Pickerington North; Watterson versus Columbus Academy; and Dublin Coffman versus Dublin Scioto.
May 2, 2013: There were 17 matches played in central Ohio; 20 in the Cleveland area, and 11 in Cincinnati. Close matches included: Green defeated Perry; Avon beat Cloverleaf; Chagrin Falls defeated Revere; New Richmond beat Anderson; Strongsville defeated Twinsburg; Walnut Ridge beat Briggs; and Willoughby South defeated Gilmour Academy. All of the results are here.
 |
Dublin Coffman Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Cloverleaf's Jacob Dunbar defeated Avon's Nico Mostardi; Mayfield's Shouta Fukamachi beat Cuyahoga Falls' Green; Pickerington North's Blaine Carr defeated DeSales' Sonny DiMichaelangelo; and Gilmour Academy's Weston Noall beat Willoughby South's Vincent Anzalone.
For the Sectional Draw, coaches must identify the division of their opponents. This information is available for most teams in the Matrix Report. (See below in light gray font.) This report is currently "free" to help coaches with the Sectional draw, but it goes back "behind the paywall" early this evening.
Please note that today's featured team picture was taken by a professional but I did receive permission to include it online.
Matches tonight include: Bexley versus Columbus Academy; Gahanna versus Pickerington North; Dublin Jerome versus Westerville South; Hilliard Bradley versus Dublin Scioto; Mason versus Lakota East; Olentangy Orange versus Big Walnut; and Worthington Christian versus St. Charles.
Please vote for the top ten teams in central Ohio so that I can get this into the Dispatch tonight.
May 1, 2013: Fifty-four matches were played yesterday. For all of the results, click here. There were quite a few close matches. Some of these matches include: Wyoming defeated Mariemont; Wellington beat Upper Arlington-B; St. Charles defeated Watterson; Norton beat Woodridge; and Beachwood defeated Kenston.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Row 1: Watterson's Ryan Bibo and Sycamore's Deepak Indrakanti. Row 2: St. Charles' Connor Yakubov and Watterson's Kevin Beattie. Click to enlarge. |
|
Matches among the top players include: Seven Hills' John Larkin defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Logan Henize; Dublin Jerome's Kent Seitz beat Worthington Kilbourne's Jack Klein; Dublin Scioto's Sean Ferguson defeated Hilliard Darby's C.J. Martin; Dublin Jerome's Adam Seitz beat Worthington Kilbourne's Rohan Gupta; Watterson's Ryan Bibo defeated St. Charles' Sam Sullivan; and Avon's Nico Mostardi beat Lakewood's Richardson.
I am taking more action photos this year. A few are posted to the right. Please click to enlarge them.
If you are a member, please vote for the Top Ten Teams in the Central District. (See below.) The plan is to get this info into the Columbus Dispatch tonight to recognize the better teams and to promote high school tennis. This will also help coaches who need to vote for the best teams in the upcoming Sectional Draw.Tonight's matches include: Dublin Coffman versus Olentangy Orange; St Ignatius versus North Canton Hoover; Big Walnut versus Jonathan Alder; and Worthington Kilbourne versus Hilliard Davidson.
Vote for the Top Ten Teams in the Central District: Please sign-in and then vote for the top Division 1 and Division 2 teams in the Central District. If enough people vote, then I will submit the polls to the Dispatch Thursday for Friday publication..
Voting was delayed this spring because of the timing of the spring breaks. Then, I wanted to get the Matrix Reports launched for the three Districts. I finally got the Matrix Reports done last night.
It is recommended that you refer to the Matrix Reports (Central, Northeast, Southwest) prior to voting.
April 30, 2013: Yesterday, there were 20 matches recorded from Central, 18 from the Northeast, and 10 from the Cincinnati area. Close matches included: Lakewood defeated Lake Ridge Academy; Mayfield beat North Royalton; Wyoming defeated Princeton 2; Hilliard Davidson beat Olentangy Orange; Groveport defeated Westland; and Circleville beat Fisher Catholic.
| Rank | Division 1 | Division 2 |
| 1 | Mason | Cincinnati Country Day |
| 2 | Sycamore | Columbus Academy |
| 3 | Upper Arlington | Seven Hills |
| 4 | St. Xavier | Lexington |
| 5 | Copley | Indian Hill |
| 6 | Springboro | Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy |
| 7 | St. John`s Jesuit | Bexley |
| 8 | Walsh Jesuit | Hawken |
| 9 | New Albany | University School |
| 10 | St. Ignatius | Kettering Alter |
The Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association released its poll. Try using the Matrix Report below to see if you agree with the poll. The Matrix Report for the Central, Northeast, and Southwest Districts was released last night.
Tonight's matches include: Watterson versus St. Charles; Worthington Kilbourne versus Dublin Jerome; Wellington versus Upper Arlington-B; and Westerville South versus Westerville Central.
Special Edition - Matrix Report: The Matrix Report is now updated for the Central, Northeast, and Southwest Districts. The idea behind this report is to make it easier to identify the best teams in each district. It is a great tool because it provides a huge amount of concise information, but it might be a bit difficult for some to understand.
Please refer to the example to the right which includes two teams from the Southwest District. Seven Hills has 9 wins and 1 loss and they have won 90% of their matches. Under Match Results, each team that Seven Hills has played is listed in chronological order. To the right of each opponent are: the score for the match; the percentage of the games won by Seven Hills; the division of that opponent; and the date.
The next step is to compare the teams that Seven Hills has played versus Indian Hill. Seven Hills has wins over CHCA (66%), Mariemont (80%), and Walnut Hills (66%). Indian Hill was beaten by CHCA (44%) and has wins over Mariemont (64%) and Walnut Hills (62%). On paper, Seven Hills is a better team than Indian Hill.
Note that every team in blue is hyper-linked so readers can skip from team to team to quickly assess that teams' wins and losses.
Please note that the results for the teams covered by the Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch, and Cleveland Plain Dealer are complete. There are also results for other major teams, such as Lexington, Springboro, and St. John's Jesuit, but their results are not complete. The matches included for them, however, are significant.
This report is normally behind the paywall, but it will be available to everyone for a couple of days. This should be very beneficial for coaches as they prepare for the Sectional Draw.
Just to see if you understand it, and so that I can get feedback from you, please vote for the top ten teams in your District / Division by using a Feedback.
April 29, 2013: The Sectional Draw is this Sunday, May 5.
 |
Ohio State - Big Ten Champs - Click to enlarge |
There are a few new players on the Top Players lists. Click on the links for Central, Northeast, and Southwest lists.
The leaders on the updated Ace Report are: Mason's Jeremy Schneider and Nadim Boulos, and Watkins Memorial's Max Nader.
Tonight's matches include: Dublin Jerome versus Reynoldsburg; St Ignatius versus Orange; St. Charles versus Pickerington North; and Bexley versus New Albany.
April 28, 2013: It is great that several teams get on the road to find good competition. That happens constantly with football and other sports, but it does not happen as much with tennis. Matches yesterday included: Upper Arlington defeated George Washington-WV and Lexington; Green beat Canton Central Catholic; and Columbus Academy defeated Perrysburg and St. John`s Jesuit.
 |
Lancaster Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Numerous top players competed against each other. They included: Upper Arlington's Stu Little defeated Lexington's Mason Dragos; Seven Hills' John Larkin beat Mason's Luke Tsai; Cincinnati Country Day's Patrick Wildman defeated Mason's Miguel Cepeda; St. John`s Jesuit's Kevin Brown beat Columbus Academy's Jacob Wareti; Mason's Jeremy Schneider defeated Sycamore's Yuri Karev; Massillon Jackson's Joseph Thomas beat Westlake's Connor Michelich; St. John`s Jesuit's Adam Zychowicz defeated Columbus Academy's Abram Schottenstein; Lexington's Jake Youse beat Upper Arlington's Jeffrey Melvin; and Columbus Academy's Evan Alexander defeated St. John`s Jesuit's Ryan Brown.
Ohio State plays the University of Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament at noon.
April 27, 2013: It was a rather busy Friday night. The close matches included: Walnut Ridge defeated Beechcroft; Walnut Hills beat Mason-B; Twinsburg defeated Mayfield; Batavia beat Blanchester; and Harvey defeated Euclid.
 |
Hilliard Bradley Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy versus St John's Jesuit and Perrysburg and Upper Arlington versus Lexington. Westerville South and Village Academy also have their tournaments. The 41 team Greater Cincinnati Coaches Classic is also underway.
April 26, 2013: There were several tightly contested matches last night. Hilliard Davidson defeated Olentangy; Olentangy Liberty beat Olentangy Orange; Sts. John & Paul defeated Andrews Osborne; Pickerington Central beat Chillicothe; and Centennial defeated Beechcroft. In a match played on Wednesday, St. Ignatius defeated Walsh Jesuit.
 |
Wellington Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Walsh Jesuit's Aaron Sandberg defeated St. Ignatius's Nathan Griffin;
Dublin Scioto's Sean Ferguson beat St. Charles' Sam Sullivan; Worthington Christian's Joel Montgomery defeated Watterson's Ryan Bibo; St. Ignatius' Christian Zuber beat Walsh Jesuit's Matthew Miles; Pickerington North's Blaine Carr defeated Worthington Kilbourne's Jack Klein; and Dublin Jerome's Adam Seitz beat New Albany's C.J. Cash.
This is the time of year when coaches and players realize that a match that was played earlier in the season is not on the web site. Since my next sentence is, "I now have results for over 250 high school teams.", I think you can guess what I am going to type next. If the match was in the Cincinnai Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch, or Cleveland Plain Dealer newpaper and I missed it, I do subscribe to these newspapers and I will happily correct it. If it was not in the newspaper, I will add it if the coach is a member or a player on a team affected is a member. Otherwise, this is the perfect opportunity to become a member. I will correct a newspaper error that is substantial, but you will be encouraged to go online and buy tennis stuff that you need anyway (at lower prices than your regular tennis retailer) from Midwest Sports.
Tonight's matches include: Mason versus Centerville; Worthington Christian versus Granville; and Beechcroft versus Walnut Ridge.
April 25, 2013: Last night was largely a rain-out -- just five matches were reported. They were: Hudson defeated University School; Sycamore beat Butler; Turpin defeated Milford; Western Brown beat Clermont Northeastern; and Highland defeated Wadsworth
 |
St. Ignatius Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
In last night's play, Hudson's Robert Stroup defeated University School's Steven Boslet.
There are two good newspaper articles about Ohio tennis today. This Columbus Dispatch article features Bishop Watterson graduate, Chris Diaz. Ohio State hosts the Big Ten Men's Tournament that runs from today to Saturday. The Cincinnati Enquirer summarizes the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Association Coaches' Classic on D12. [There is currently no online link for the Enquirer article.]
Matches tonight include: Dublin Jerome versus New Albany; Pickerington North versus Worthington Kilbourne; St Ignatius versus St Edward; St. Charles versus Dublin Scioto; and Westerville South versus Big Walnut.
April 24, 2013: It was another busy night with great weather throughout Ohio. Some of the closer matches included: Dublin Jerome defeated Dublin Scioto; Lakota West beat Lakota East; Pickerington Central defeated Grove City; Wilmington beat Talawanda; and Brecksville defeated North Royalton. All of the yesterday's results are here.
| Rank | Division 1 | Division 2 |
| 1 | Mason | Cincinnati Country Day |
| 2 | Sycamore | Columbus Academy |
| 3 | Upper Arlington | Seven Hills |
| 4 | St. Xavier | Indian Hill |
| 5 | Springboro | Lexington |
| 6 | Copley | Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy |
| 7 | St. John`s Jesuit | Bexley |
| 8 | Walsh Jesuit | Kettering Alter |
| 9 | New Albany | University School |
| 10 | Dublin Jerome | Hawken |
The Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association released its first coaches' poll. The teams are listed to the right with links to their results. The results for those schools in the Dayton-area and in the Northwest District are not complete.
Interesting matches tonight include: Columbus Academy versus Dublin Jerome; Buckeye Valley versus Olentangy; and Worthington Kilbourne versus Olentangy Liberty. Other matches are included here.
April 23, 2013: It was a beautiful night for tennis. Fifty-five matches were recorded. Close matches included: Village Academy defeated Buckeye Valley; Whetstone beat Centennial; Wyoming defeated Oakwood; Gahanna beat Dublin Jerome; and Marysville defeated Big Walnut. Click for all of the results.
 |
Worthington Kilbourne's Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
The Ace Report leaders are (in order): Mason's Jeremy Schneider, Nadim Boulos, and Young-Jin Kang.
Tonight's matches include: Bexley versus Worthington Christian; Dublin Jerome versus Dublin Scioto; Reynoldsburg versus Pickerington North; St Ignatius versus Mayfield; and Watterson versus DeSales.
April 22, 2013: The Top Players Lists for Columbus and Cincinnati are updated. Note that I collect results from Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland, but not Dayton or Springfield. The results that I have for Springboro come from when Springboro plays other teams in the above areas, so their results will be incomplete.
 |
Seven Hills Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Now that there is so much more information, it is advised that you sign-in when you first come online.
Plans for this week include: rolling out the Matrix Report for the Cincinnati area; introducing a Top Players list for the Cleveland area; having this seasons' first Columbus-area coaches' poll; and finally providing the OGT results for the public schools (after the data-rigging scandal delayed the data release).
In the Cleveland area, Hawken and University School finished first and second, respectively, in the Caraboolad Memorial Tournament. Playing first singles in the tournament, Weston Noall (Gilmour Academy), Siddarth Ahuja (Hawken), and Robert Stroup (University School) finished first, second, and third, respectively.
Matches for tonight include: Dublin Jerome versus Gahanna; Lancaster versus Watterson; Mason versus Oak Hills; and Centennial versus Whetstone.
April 21, 2013: It was another cold day for tennis and there was plenty of activity in central and southwest Ohio. Upper Arlington defeated both Perrysburg and Springboro; Olentangy beat Olentangy Orange; Sycamore defeated Copley; and St. Xavier beat Seven Hills.
 |
Northland Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
In tournament play, Dublin Jerome won the Worthington Cup and Lake Ridge Academy won the LCAA Tournament.
The Top Players lists will be reshuffled tonight and a few additional players will be added.
April 20, 2013: Friday was a big night for big matches. Upper Arlington defeated St John's Jesuit; Columbus Academy beat Walsh Jesuit; Copley defeated St. Ignatius; Sycamore beat Hudson; St. Edward defeated Lakewood; and Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy beat Walnut Hills. All of last night's results are here.
 |
Bishop Watterson Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
The Worthington Cup will be held today at Thomas Worthington and Worthington Kilbourne. Other matches scheduled include: Bexley versus St John's Jesuit; Upper Arlington versus both Perrysburg and Springboro; Worthington Christian versus DeSales; and St Ignatius versus Rocky River.
April 19, 2013: It was another busy night with 59 matches played. The 3-2 matches included: Cincinnati Country Day defeated Walnut Hills; Gahanna beat Reynoldsburg; Grandview defeated Fisher Catholic; Marysville beat Olentangy Liberty; Wellington defeated St. Charles; and Loveland beat Moeller. All of the results are here.
 |
Upper Arlington-B Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Mason's Nadim Boulos and Jeremy Schneider are tied for the lead on the Ace Report. Watkins Memorial's Max Nader is third.
For a Friday night, there are quite a few matches scheduled. They include: Upper Arlington versus St John's Jesuit; Reynoldsburg versus Worthington Christian; and Whetstone versus Eastmoor Academy.
April 18, 2013: Fifty-six match results were recorded from yesterday's play. There were 23 from the Northeast, 19 from Central, and 14 from the Southeast. Shaker Heights defeated North Royalton in the most tense match of the night. That match had five three-setters. Other close matches included: Columbus Academy beat New Albany; Hilliard Davidson defeated Watterson; Westerville South beat Dublin Scioto; and Brush defeated West Geauga.
 |
Franklin Heights Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
It was a busy night with the top players. Cincinnati Country Day's Asher Hirsch defeated Mason's Luke Tsai; Columbus Academy's Jacob Wareti beat New Albany's C.J. Cash; Cincinnati Country Day's Patrick Wildman defeated Mason's Miguel Cepeda; Columbus Academy's Abram Schottenstein beat New Albany's Alex Kobelt; and Columbus Academy's Evan Alexander defeated New Albany's Rathnakishore Giri.
Tonight's matches include: Bexley versus Watterson; Gahanna versus Reynoldsburg; Olentangy versus Franklin Heights; Pickerington Central versus Pickerington North; and St Ignatius versus Copley.
April 17, 2013: There were numerous one-sided matches last night as well as many matches that ended early due to rain. Some of the closer matches included: St. Ignatius defeated Solon; St. Charles beat DeSales; and Mifflin defeated Eastmoor Academy. Click here to view all of the results.
 |
St. Charles Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
The team report pages for many of the Central District schools now link to "start of season" articles from ThisWeek News. These reporters do a great job of summarizing what to expect from each team. The reporters include: Aaron Blankenship, Frank DiRenna, Jarrod Ulrey, Brad Emerine, Scott Hennen, and Dave Purpura.
The top three servers on the Ace Report are Mason's Jeremy Schneider and Nadim Boulos, and Watkins Memorial's Max Nader.
If the rain ends, there will be several interesting matches tonight. They include: Bexley versus Gahanna; Columbus Academy versus New Albany; Mason versus Cincinnati Country Day; and Watterson versus Hilliard Davidson.
April 16, 2013: As all of the scores came in from coaches last night, I thought that today's processing would take a fair amount of time. It has. There were 52 matches recorded: 21 from Central, 19 from the Northeast, and 12 from the Southwest.
Some of the 3-2 matches included: Cincinnati Country Day defeated Sycamore; Delaware Hayes beat Hilliard Bradley; Lancaster defeated Circleville; Olentangy beat Worthington Christian; Seven Hills defeated Walnut Hills; and Aurora beat Kenston.
 |
Whetstone Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Numerous top players competed against each other. They included: Cincinnati Country Day's Asher Hirsch defeated Sycamore's Deepak Indrakanti; Worthington Christian's Joel Montgomery beat Olentangy's Austin Karbler; Cincinnati Country Day's Patrick Wildman defeated Sycamore's Nakul Narendran; Seven Hills's John Larkin beat Walnut Hills' Nils Knobloch; and Indian Hill's Alex Warstler defeated Summit Country Day's Nicholas Sanders.
Tonight's matches include: Bexley versus Granville; DeSales versus St. Charles; Pickerington Central versus Reynoldsburg; and St Ignatius versus Solon.
April 15, 2013: The Top Players lists for the Central and Southwest Districts were adjusted yesterday. While the match results will be updated daily, the order of the top players and the boys who are included on the lists will likely change just once a week.
 |
Beechcroft Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
If you monitor the lists closely, you will likely know who will be on the Watch List next by seeing which player has either extremely close matches with, or victories against, others on the list. Players always start on the Watch List before going to the Top Singles list.
College coaches closely montor these lists for potential recruits and to see how their current recruits are performing. Many high school coaches also refer to them before the Sectional draws.
Some players have all of their singles match results included on the Top Players list, others do not. Those with Player Profiles do have this information included because this detailed information is readily available via the Profiles.
Interesting matches scheduled for tonight include: Olentangy versus Worthington Christian; Watterson versus Olentangy Liberty; and Whetstone versus Northland. I plan to go to the Whetstone versus Northland match.
April 14, 2013: For a cold day better-suited for a platform tennis match*, the tennis results that came in looked like the first or second day of States. The best players and the best teams competed against each other throughout the state. [*Actually, it would have been a bit too warm for platform tennis].
 |
Mason Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
In tournaments, Seven Hills won the Hilliard Davidson Doubles Tournament with 33 points followed by Dublin Coffman and Worthington Kilbourne, who tied with 26 points. Beachwood and Rocky River finished first and second, respectively, in the Rocky River Tournament, and Avon Lake won its doubles tournament.
Many of the top players competed against each other. Upper Arlington's Stu Little defeated Mason's Luke Tsai and Sycamore's Deepak Indrakanti; Mason's Miguel Cepeda beat Upper Arlington's Jeffrey Melvin and Melvin defeated Sycamore's Nakul Narendran; Mason's Jeremy Schneider beat Upper Arlington's Brandon Griffin; St. Xavier Matthew Duma defeated New Albany's CJ Cash; St. Xavier's Matthew Santen beat New Albany's Alex Kobelt; Lexington's Mason Dragos defeated St. Xavier's Matthew Duma; New Albany's CJ Cash beat University School's Robert Stroup; and St. Ignatius' Nathan Griffin defeated St. Xavier's Matthew Duma.
The players on the Top Players lists will be adjusted with tomorrow's update.
April 13, 2013: There were 23 matches played yesterday throughout the Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus areas. Close, 3-2, matches included: Watterson defeated Westerville South; Walnut Hills beat Kings; and North Canton Hoover defeated Hudson.
 |
Briggs Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
I would like to issue a special thanks to Karen Eldredge for taking pictures of numerous teams as they have played matches at the Park of Roses. Karen took Briggs' team picture yesterday.
Jeremy Schneider of Mason leads the recently updated Ace Report, followed by Max Nader and Dylan Clear of Watkins Memorial.
There will be another update of the Top Players report after this weekend's play.
Today's matches include: Bexley versus University School; St Ignatius versus St Xavier; Upper Arlington versus Sycamore; Upper Arlington versus Mason; and Mason versus Columbus Academy. Hilliard Davidson is also having its doubles tournament today.
April 12, 2013: Yesterday was a rain-out for most teams. Just three teams reported results. Lancaster defeated Westerville Central; Pickerington Central beat Westerville North; and Westlake defeated Avon Lake.
The Top Player Reports for Central and Southwest Districts are now available. Please treat these as "Early Editions" since many players have not yet played. Several on the Watch Lists will move up quickly to the Top Singles Players list. There are also more players to add to the Watch Lists. I know that you are proud of your son, but please do not try to lobby me to get your son on the list. If you think that I am overlooking your son, have your son's coach contact me. Again, I would have preferred to wait another week but I am seeing so much usage with this report that I felt it was necessary to update it.
There are several big matches scheduled for today and for this weekend. Tonight, it is Worthington Kilbourne versus Seven Hills; New Albany versus St Xavier; Eastmoor Academy versus Grandview; and Watterson versus Westerville South. On Saturday, the matches include: Bexley versus University School; St Ignatius versus St Xavier; Upper Arlington versus Sycamore; Upper Arlington versus Mason; and Mason versus Columbus Academy. [Voting for the winning team has ended. Mason won 3-2.]
April 11, 2013: Dublin Coffman and Pickerington North had the match of the day. It included four 3-setters. Dublin Coffman won the match, 3-2. Other 3-2 matches included: Olentangy defeated Olentangy Liberty and Pickerington Central beat Olentangy Orange. Click for all of the results.
 |
DeSales Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
If they are not rained out, interesting matches tonight include: St. Charles versus Upper Arlington; Watterson versus Dublin Scioto; and Olentangy Orange versus Reynoldsburg. I will be wearing my SC hat to the St. Charles versus UA match tonight.
April 10, 2013: There were 23 matches played in Central Ohio, 20 in the Cleveland area, and 18 in Cincinnati.
 |
Upper Arlington Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Matches among the top players included: Mason's Luke Tsai defeated Sycamore's Deepak Indrakanti; Mason's Miguel Cepeda beat Sycamore's Nakul Narendran in three sets; and Cincinnati Country Day's Patrick Wildman defeated Seven Hills' John Larkin.
The Ace Report has been updated. The top three servers are: Watkins Memorial's Dylan Clear and Max Nader and Mason's Jeremy Schneider.
Tonight's interesting matches include: Olentangy versus Olentangy Liberty; St Ignatius versus Westlake; St. Charles versus Westerville North; and DeSales versus Upper Arlington - B. I hope to attend the DeSales-UA-B match at DeSales.
April 9, 2013: It was a big night for tennis with several city league teams playing. There were no close local matches, but there were a few in the Cleveland area. For all of the results, click here.
As I have stated a few times before, the graphs were added this year to enable readers to process more information much faster. The lack of play has prevented me from creating a new Top Players list, but these graphs will greatly help me identify those who should be on the list. Here is one example of a court one player who will be on the top list. Click on Previous Day Match Results (and possibly choose a previous day) to view all of the graphs. Click on Feedback to guess the player and his team. If you answer it correctly, you'll get nothing but you will feel better about yourself.
Among the top players, Wellington's Nick Sweeney defeated Olentangy Orange's Tim Hawk in a 3 setter.
Hopefully the rain will hold off for tonight's matches. They include: Bexley versus Grandview; Columbus Academy versus Granville; Mason versus Sycamore; New Albany versus Olentangy Orange; Upper Arlington versus Thomas Worthington; and St Ignatius versus Westlake.
April 8, 2013: The Ace Report is now updated. Hilliard Bradley's Parker Holland and William Kolenky, and Marysville's James Johnstone are tied for the lead at seven aces apiece. The idea behind the Ace report is to get players to focus on their serves during the off-season. I view it as the same thing as a basketball player working on foul shots at the city park. Players can work on their serves independently whenever they want to improve.
 |
 |
Pictures from PanCAN 2012 - Click to enlarge |
|
April 7, 2013: Yesterday's play was rather sparse as many teams return from spring break on Monday. In Columbus, Sycamore defeated Columbus Academy in a close, 3-2 match. St. Edwards also had their early season tournament in Cleveland. It is summarized in this article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
 |
 |
Pictures (l-r) Columbus Academy and Sycamore - Click to enlarge |
|
Among the top players, Columbus Academy's Jacob Wareti defeated Sycamore's Deepak Indrakanti and Columbus Academy's Abram Schottenstein beat Sycamore's Nakul Narendran.
Monday's docket is full of matches with many of the City League teams playing. A more complete list is here but some of the interesting matches include: Beechcroft versus Whetstone; Big Walnut versus Worthington Kilbourne; Olentangy Orange versus Wellington; St Ignatius versus Lexington; and Worthington Christian versus Delaware Hayes.
April 6, 2013: Nineteen matches were recorded, but they were not all played in the Cincinnati and Columbus areas. Scores from Northeast are going to be included on a trial basis. Northeast scores from previous days will be added over the weekend.
 |
Olentangy Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Matches among the stronger players included: New Albany's C.J. Cash defeated Dublin Coffman's Jack Buchan in a 3 setter and Walsh Jesuit's Aaron Sandberg beat Sycamore's Deepak Indrakanti.
The Ohio State University Men's Team extended its home win streak to a decade. Click to read more.
I will be going to the Columbus Academy versus Sycamore match later this morning.
April 5, 2013: It has been cold but we have been fortunate to get through the week without rain. Eighteen matches were recorded from yesterday.
 |
Central Crossing Boys Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Cincinnati Country Day's Patrick Wildman defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Logan Henize and Columbus Academy's Jacob Wareti beat Olentangy Liberty's Kyle Flahive.
Team pictures are starting to come in. If you have a team picture that you would like to send to me, please send me a Feedback message so that I can provide you with my email address.
The Ace Report will be released later today.
Three matches are scheduled for tonight. They are: London versus Jonathan Alder; Olentangy versus Big Walnut; and St Ignatius versus Hawken.
April 4, 2013: Even though many teams are still on spring break, 23 matches were recorded from last night.
The close, 3-2 matches included:
Dublin Jerome defeated Dublin Coffman; Granville beat Jonathan Alder; Pickerington Central defeated Watkins Memorial; Reynoldsburg beat Westerville Central; Thomas Worthington defeated Big Walnut; and Sycamore-B beat Loveland.
To quickly view the complete results from yesterday, it is recommended that you first sign-in before you click here (or on the graphic to the right). That way you can quickly drill down to who played at the various court positions by clicking on the Box Scores. To move back up to the graphs, just click on the Box Score again. The goal for this season is to make it easier for readers to digest more information faster. This becomes more important now that I am covering more schools.
Among the top players, Dublin Jerome's Kent Seitz defeated Dublin Coffman's John Buchan and Mason's Miquel Cepeda beat Wyoming's Myles Bourbon.
Aces have been recorded by numerous coaches. The Ace Report for this season will be launched in tomorrow's update. For last year's Ace Report, click on the link.
Interesting matches for tonight include: Columbus Academy versus Olentangy Liberty; Dublin Coffman versus New Albany; Fisher Catholic versus Lancaster; Wellington versus Whetstone; and Worthington Kilbourne versus Olentangy Orange.
April 3, 2013: The season is starting to ramp up. Seventeen matches were played in the Cincinnati and Columbus areas.
There were two close matches: Worthington Kilbourne defeated Thomas Worthington and Teays Valley beat Franklin Heights. To view all of the matches, click here. (Please note that there were no match details for the Pickerington Central versus Westerville Central match so that information could not be provided.)
The Top Players list is still on hold until more matches are played, but two of the state qualifiers from the Cincinnati area played last night. Seven Hill's John Larkin defeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy's Logan Heinze.
There are numerous interesting matches tonight. They include: Central Crossing versus Grove City; Circleville versus Miami Trace (my alma mater); Columbus Academy versus Wellington; Dublin Coffman versus Dublin Jerome; Dublin Scioto versus Olentangy Liberty; Hilliard Darby versus Hilliard Davidson; Lancaster versus Chillicothe; Mason versus Wyoming; and West versus Westland.
Team pictures are starting to be taken. The best way to take a picture for the web site is to have a parent take a picture over the professional photographer's shoulder. You do need to use a actual camera. Please *do not* use a camera phone.
April 2, 2013: The season started with just five Columbus and Cincinnati matches. There should be a bit more activity tonight. The results of all of the matches are available here.
 |
 |
Pictures (l-r) Hilliard Darby and Marysville - Click to enlarge |
|
We are still in a transition mode between the 2012 and 2013 seasons. The Top Players report will not be updated until it is clearer where players will be in their team line-ups.
Tonight's matches include: Thomas Worthington versus Worthington Kilbourne and Whetstone versus Westland.
April 1, 2013: It's tennis season!
Schedule information was added for many of the Central Ohio schools over the last two days. There were several sources for this information. Some coaches entered their own. Other coaches sent me their schedules to add. I also retrieved numerous schedules from ThisWeekNews. While I would prefer that coaches add their own schedules to the web site, coaches or parents (who are members) may send me their schedules to add. Matches for the next three days are available here. (Please sign-in to view.)
There will be quite a few changes made over the next few days as the data and news begins arriving.
If things go according to plan (and they rarely do), the results for the Cincinnati and Columbus-area teams will be online tomorrow morning by roughly 9am.
I will be attending the Hilliard Darby versus Marysville match tonight to get team pictures. You may send me a picture of your team, but I cannot accept photos taken by professionals unless I have their permission to place them online.
March 28, 2013: Gerber Analytics provides tennis coaches with numerous tools to help them with their coaching duties and to make the season more rewarding for their players and fans.
If you are a Cincinnati-area player and you think your coach might benefit from having a coach membership, please encourage them to check out the web site. Columbus-area coaches were sent this email yesterday, but I do not have the email addresses for the Cincinnati-area coaches.
In a nutshell, Gerber Analytics enables coaches to quickly report score results, research opponents, recognize players via coach's comments, provide players / fans with a pre-match program, and to provide players with an end-of-year summary of all of their matches.
The cost for coaches to join Gerber Analytics is $24.95, or about the price of a scorebook. Payments have come from a variety of sources. I get checks from athletic departments, team parents (who want their coach to use the web site), and from the coaches themselves.
March 27, 2013: The all important USTA Area Qualifier registration deadline is Sunday, April 28 at 11:59pm for the Central District players. There are no late registrations accepted so register now before you forget. Go to the Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA) web site to get all of the details.
Thanks to Sycamore's Dylan Stern for helping identify the schools for the freshman players.
March 26, 2013: There will be Top Players Lists for Central and Southwest this season, but I need to wait until I see what some of the line-ups are prior to creating this list. I really try to avoid putting court 3 singles players on the Top Players List because they rarely get good matches during the season, but I may need to make an exception this year. I also made an exception during the girls season with Dublin Jerome, but they also decisively won the OTCA Tournament. Click for the Girls Top Player List for the Central District.
The teams that are really giving me trouble because of their depth include: Columbus Academy, Mason, New Albany, Springboro, Sycamore, and Upper Arlington.
March 25, 2013: Congratulations to Bishop Watterson for winning the State D II Basketball Championship over Akron's St. Vincent-St. Mary on Saturday. It was a great game and I am glad that I went.
| Freshman Players | School |
| Rohan Gupta | Worthington Kilbourne |
| Eric Hunter | Upper Arlington |
| Azad Koya | Westerville-area |
| Alex Nguyen | Cincinnati-area |
| Andrew Niehaus | St. Xavier |
| Sean Reid | Mason |
| Adam Seitz | Dublin Jerome |
| Jacob Stavsky | Seven Hills |
| Aditya Venkitarama | Sycamore |
| Jacob Wareti | Columbus Academy |
While I would not expect these players to win state championships in tennis this year, there are numerous strong freshman in the Central and Southwest Districts that should be able to contribute immediately to the success of their teams. They are listed in alphabetical order to the right. All of these players are highly ranked in TennisRecruiting.net.
If you are aware of where these players are attending high school, please send a message via Contact Scott.
March 22, 2013: Since I still do not have tennis matches to cover, today's entry provides other information that might interest you. As many of you know, I closely follow high school basketball and high school education results. (You may have noticed my education site if you have come to this site via www.gerberanalytics.com.) In fact, my site is the only place where education enthusiasts can find Ohio Graduation Test results for private high schools.
To continue with a basketball theme, the four teams already in the OHSAA Basketball Finals are Watterson versus Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary in Division II, and Ottawa-Glandorf versus Versailles in Division III. These are all great education schools as well as great basketball schools.
Their academic results are available via the above links.
It is fascinating how frequently the schools that excel in sports also excel in the classroom. What is even more fascinating is that the academic results for St. Vincent-St. Mary were accessed more than any other high school after the private school results were released last week. During a week when basketball had to have taken top billing, the St. Vincent-St. Mary community still had the interest to see how their school performed academically.
Congratulations to these teams on making the finals.
Please note that the public school data for the 2011-12 school year is still not available for the public schools because of the data-rigging scandal.
March 7, 2013: The City League schools are using a grant from the Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA) to provide their students with court time at Olympic Indoor.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Row 1 (l-r): City League players and coaches. Bucky Walters feeds balls during a volley drill Row 2: Jim Scowden provides serving tips. Jared Weyand / Jim Scowden look on as players practice their serves. Click to enlarge. |
|
Every Wednesday up to 42 players are using four courts to improve their tennis skills.
Tennis pro, Max Quinton, and the schools' coaches feed balls and provide tips to the players. High school coaches participating when this picture was taken on February 27th included: Whetstone's Bucky Walters, Mifflin's Jared Weyand, and West's Bruce Dufner.
The GCTA's mission is to promote and grow tennis in Central Ohio. If you have a program in mind that you think might qualify, please click here to learn more about the grant process.
GCTA Vice President Jim Scowden worked to obtain the grant for this cause.
March 6, 2013: The Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association's Coaches Clinic was held on Sunday and Monday. There was a strong contingent of coaches sharing their favorite drills and strategies.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Row 1 (l-r): Scott Long - OTCA President and Centerville Head Coach. Todd Wojtkowski - Case Western Head Coach Row 2: Matt Dektas - Cincinnati Country Day Head Coach and Director of Tennis at Five Seasons (in green) providing a clinic. The ultra thin and lightweight, wide-screen, quasi-3D display presentation device used by Gerber Analytics Click to enlarge. |
|
To see the clinic agenda and those who presented, click here.
I showed many coaches the web site and the new reports for this season. The Match Prep Kit report was probably the favorite new report for many of the coaches. As more schools move to "pay-to-play", it becomes even more necessary for coaches to "sell" their tennis programs to prospective players. This pre-match "program" that coaches could print and take to matches would be appreciated by players, fans, and parents.
Another report that was well-received is the new Coach Profile report. More details on this report will follow.
February 27, 2013: The Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association's Coaches Clinic will be this coming Sunday and Monday (March 3 and 4) at the Columbus Marriott Northwest. This will be the third year that I have purchased a booth at this conference, and I hope to see and to meet many of the coaches.
Please stop by so that I can show you the new reports that I have created which will help you: 1) save time, 2) evaluate other teams, 3) promote your tennis team, and 4) recognize your players.
While it is extremely unlikely that I will be able to bribe my daughter, Lauren, (now an OSU freshman) to attend, I do plan to bring along my fifth grade science fair poster board again this year. (Let's hope that it is really windy when I leave the clinic and that the wind finally puts it out of its misery so that I can't use it next year.)
I want a picture of every head varsity coach who attends this conference. If I have not taken your picture, please let me know.
February 26, 2013: If you attend a Division 1 college tennis match, you may receive an information sheet about the players on both teams. Now you can get this type of information for your high school tennis match.
As the tag line at the top of each page states, "Recognizing those who play and coach high school tennis", this is another effort to promote tennis in central Ohio and the Cincinnati area. This type of program might be available for your school's football or basketball programs, but not for any other sport. Now it is available for tennis.
Included on these new information sheets are: pictures of the teams, players' first and last names, class years of the players, names of the coaches, pictures of the coaches, a scoresheet for the match, and results from the three most recent matches.
To see how the report works, click on image to the right. This season's example will be St. Charles vs. Bexley. To obtain the information for your school, sign-in and select your opponent.
This information sheet will be available for members to print prior to going to matches.
Please note that teams outside of central Ohio and the Cincinnati-area will have minimal information.
February 25, 2013: Player profile reports enable players, parents, college coaches, and high school coaches to quickly view all of the singles and doubles results for each player. These profiles were launched at the end of the boys season, but became quite popular during the girls season.
To continue with the goal of aggregating more information, a single report now shows all of the players who have profiles.
It is expected that college coaches will benefit the most from this particular page because they will no longer have to search for those players who have profiles.
To view this report, just click on this link or the image to the right.
If you would like your own player profile report, click to become a member of Gerber Analytics.
February 21, 2013: Cramming more tennis information into your brain faster is the goal for this tennis season as more information is aggregated into new reports. The first new report is called the Boys Daily Tennis Results, and it aggregates all of a single day's results into one graphically enhanced page.
Readers get the scores, teams' won/lost records, "performance by court" graphs, and the ability to drill down into more detail to see who played on every court.
Users wanting even more detail about a team may click on a team name. This links readers to the school team report.
Your spare is valuable and this report allows you to quickly digest the previous day's results.
It has not been determined if this will be a "members-only" report for the boys season. Currently, readers can see the graphs and results for free. Members must sign-in to view the detailed line-ups.
Currently shown are the end-of-year matches for the boys. More reports are on the way.
February 14, 2013: The Ohio High School Athletic Association held its monthly meeting today. Interesting information that I gathered from the meeting that pertains to tennis includes:
- Sectional seeding meetings will be held on May 5 and all Sectional draws will be conducted on the same day. If you recall from last year, I could not release the Central District seeding sheets immediately after the Central District meeting because some coaches thought that it would give the "late" district an advantage.
- Upper Arlington's Amos Allison and Dublin Jerome's Tyler Stephen were recognized as State Coaches of the Year. Congratulations to them.
- Attendance at the Girls State Tournament totaled 1,156 this year versus 1,101 last year. The tournament showed a net loss of $3,205 in 2012 versus a loss of $5,387 in 2011. The major difference between the two years is that the OHSAA had to pay indoor court time for two days in 2011 versus one day in 2012. It is not unusual for a state tournament to have a loss. Golf had a greater loss than tennis, and soccer attendance was substantially lower than in previous year's due to Hurricane Sandy.
- Boys states will be held on May 31-June 1.
 |
 |
Amos Allison and Tyler Stephen |
|
February 7, 2013: There will be a number of changes for this season to increase the quality of tennis information that readers receive. The first change is an addition of new graphs that show performance on a "By Court" basis for each dual match.
To see how it works, look at the second graph. Dublin Coffman's Hiromi Nakayama played on Court 1 Singles, and he won 67% (12/18) of the games in his match against New Albany's Oliver Sybert. Hiromi won by the score of 6-2, 6-4.
At a quick glance, these graphs will provide readers with the relative strength of each court. Coaches might use this information to identify players who should move up (or down) in the line-up. Opponent coaches may use these charts to fine-tune a line-up to get a win. I will use it to help identify players who should be considered for the Top Players List.
More changes will be coming soon!
 |
 |
 |
 |
Pictures (l-r) Row One: OSU's Niki Flower, OSU's Chris Diaz. Row Two: Xavier's Phil Diaz, Butler's Billy Weldon - Click to enlarge |
|
The pictures to the right feature four central Ohio players in recent collegiate matches held at the OSU indoor facility. I am still experimenting with camera lenses so some pictures are clearer than others. Click to enlarge the photos.
January 12, 2013: The college tennis programs are about to gear up in earnest. The Ohio State men's team will be playing Butler and Xavier on Wednesday, January 16. This match will be a high school reunion for many players, parents, and fans. OSU's roster includes: Peter Kobelt (New Albany), Chris Diaz (Watterson), Kevin Metka (Worthington Kilbourne), and Devon McCarthy (Indian Hill). Butler's lineup includes: Billy Weldon (Upper Arlington), Tommy Marx (Shaker Heights), and Ruben Geeraert (Centerville). Xavier has Philip Diaz (Watterson), Zach Mueck (Lakota East), Patrick Bandy (St. Xavier), Freddy Abunku (Lakota East), and Jimmy Roebker (Covington Catholic) in its line-up.
Peter Kobelt (high school picture) received the high honor of being named the Number 1 ranked player in the most recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll. This is a very big deal. Peter played both high school tennis and basketball for four years at New Albany. He is a red-shirt junior.
Click to access the Central Ohio Graduates Playing College Tennis report to follow all of the local players.
The OSU women's team starts their home matches on January 23 against Toledo and Cincinnati.
December 14, 2012: The redesigned Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA) web site was launched yesterday. 
Central Ohio tennis fans and players should find the site to be of interest. It includes over 700 pictures of local tennis players from 2001 to present. It also lists all of the GCTA award winners beginning in 2002.
Tennis is one of the few sports that you can play your entire life. The GCTA helps provide a seamless transition for high school graduates who would like to play on one of the many adult teams. They have also taken a very active role in promoting the USTA's 10 & Under program, which is a terrific way to help younger players learn the sport.
This is the first web site that I have created for another party, and the GCTA will join Elysium Tennis, Olympic Indoor, and Midwest Sports as this site's major advertisers.
Please bookmark GCTA.net.
 |
Dublin Jerome Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
 |
Hilliard Davidson Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
November 1, 2012: I just received the team picture of the Hilliard Davidson tennis team. It is to the right.
I am still accepting team pictures. I can also scan them if it is a printed copy. (The Hilliard Davidson picture was scanned.) Please note that I must have the approval of the photographer if it is a professional photo. In many cases, parents take a quick photo over the professional photographer's shoulder. Those work out the best.
Please send me a Feedback or email if you have any questions.
October 31, 2012: I am pleased to announce a new advertising relationship with Midwest Sports. Midwest Sports is an online tennis retailer, based in Cincinnati. They are also one of the world's largest tennis retailers thanks to their great discount prices and service.
It is a family-owned and family-run business that heavily supports tennis in a variety of ways, including having a major presence at the ATP Tour event in Cincinnati each August.
If you do need tennis gear (shoes, racquets, apparel, etc.) and you have not used Midwest Sports, please do so. Over the last decade, our family has placed dozens of orders from Midwest Sports while our kids played junior tennis. You'll benefit from Midwest Sports, and each order you place, will benefit the Gerber Analytics, LLC web site. Please use this link whenever you shop.
As an added benefit to Gerber Analytics readers, by using the above link and the code, "GERBER", you will receive an extra 10% off on clearance items. There is also free shipping for any orders greater than $69.95.
Midwest Sports joins Elysium Tennis and Olympic Indoor as a major advertiser. These advertisers make up the bulk of the revenue that I receive from this web site so please support them if you enjoy this web site.
 |
Dublin Coffman Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
October 30, 2012: There is a big Halloween announcement tomorrow. (Many of you may already know what it is.)
I failed to highlight Dublin Coffman's team picture during the season. It is to the right.
 |
Ursuline Academy Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
 |
Indian Hill Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
October 29, 2012: Here are two pictures from the Ohio Tennis Coaches' Tournament.
Ursuline Academy was the runner-up in Division I. They beat Notre Dame, 4-0, and lost to Dublin Jerome, 3-0. Indian Hill finished third in Division II. Indian Hill lost to Lexington, 3-1, and beat Hathaway Brown, 3-2.
Both pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
October 28, 2012: The Central and Southwest Top Player Reports are updated with the results from States. Also included are pictures of several Southwest District players that I took at States.
All of the girls to the right are on the Southwest Top Players Report. Click on the link to match the names with the pictures.
If your daughter is on my top players list and you would like to have her picture included, please send me a Feedback message.
 |
 |
 |
| Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai (Aces) | Hilliard Bradley's Ashley Thai (Aces) | New Albany's Jane Haffer (Aces) |
October 27, 2012: Even though the Ace counts are readily available, one thing that was not adequately done this season was to recognize the players who finished at the top of the Ace Report.
Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai and Ashley Thai and New Albany's Jane Haffer were the top three. Lauren and Ashley played primarily singles matches during the season while most of Jane's matches were doubles.
The two other players in the top five were Thomas Worthington's Monica Chang and Olentangy Orange's Madison Wolfe.
The purpose of the Ace Report is to get players more focused on serving. It is also a skill on which any player can improve by working on her own with six to ten balls in the summer. The ace counts were primarily maintained by coaches but members also had the ability to include aces.
October 26, 2012: The Columbus All-City League team was included in today's Columbus Dispatch. The first team singles are: Abigail Nypaver and Alexandra
Myers (Whetstone); Niki Stearns (Centennial); and Bria Elder
(Eastmoor Academy). The first team doubles are: Dora Mase
and Jessica Price (Whetstone); Christina Dickerson and
Shayla Prillerman (West). The honorable mention singles are:
Leah Neimeister and Katherine Bustos-Chaves (West);
Nana Ama Afrifah (Independence); and Desy Stearns
(Centennial). The honorable mention doubles are: Nadia Brown
and Naomi Woodson-Levy (Marion-Franklin); Jazmin
Sigala and Halima Omar (West); Sophia Rizzi and Lily
Morris (Whetstone); Kennesha White and Brandee
Lenoir (Eastmoor); Sharefa Duhaney and Deanna
Howell-Dawson (Linden-McKinley); and Jesse Manser and Margaret Sullivan (Centennial).
It is difficult to "time" the championship points during the State Championships. I thought that the Division I doubles match was finishing, but while I was checking, the Division II Singles match finished. This video shows two good points near the end of the match, but I do not have the video of the championship point between Bishop Hartley's Rachael Morales and St. Francis DeSales' My Linh Li. Rachael won this match, 6-0, 6-2.
October 25, 2012: Today's video shows the next to last match point and then the championship point between Lexington and Columbus Academy. Lexington won the match, 3-1. Lexington's Elise Betscher won the deciding match against
Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger, 7-5, 6-4.
Please note that this video is still being uploaded to YouTube. It should be available by 11:30. [11:00: It is now available.]
October 24, 2012: This video shows DeSales' My Linh Li winning match point against West Holmes' Rachel Nelson, the defending State Division II Singles Champion. My Linh won the match, 6-4, 6-4.
Tomorrow's video will be the championship point between Lexington and Columbus Academy.
October 23, 2012: Included in today's video are two points from the State Division I Doubles Championship Match. New Albany's Cristina and Francesca Di Lorenzo won that match
against Dublin Jerome's Sarah and Emma Stein, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
Tomorrow's video will be from the Division II semi-final match between DeSales' My Linh Li and West Holmes' Rachel Nelson.
October 22, 2012: The Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association Tournament champions were decided yesterday at the new Reynoldsburg High School tennis courts. Dublin Jerome won the Division I championship by beating Ursuline Academy, and Lexington won the Division II crown by beating Columbus Academy.
The scores for each contest are available in the table to the right. Click on the link for the scoresheet of each match. The results will be added to the database for the team reports by Monday afternoon.
The Cincinnati Enquirer and the MansfieldNewsJournal.com both had articles. MansfieldNewsJournal.com also has over 40 pictures of the event.
I plan to release videos over the next few days. I will finish the video for the Division I championship point between New Albany and Dublin Jerome for tomorrow's update. The final point between DeSales' My Linh Li and West Holmes' Rachel Nelson will go up on Wednesday. The OTCA championship point for the Lexington versus Columbus Academy match is planned for Thursday. I may have a few more videos as well.
October 21, 2012: It was an eventful day of tennis yesterday. In Division I, Lauren Golick defeated Mount Notre Dame's Sandy Niehaus to earn the singles championship, and New Albany's Cristina and Francesca Di Lorenzo beat Dublin Jerome's Sarah and Emma Stein to earn the doubles crown. In Division II singles, Hartley's Rachael Morales defeated DeSales' My Linh Li, and in Division II doubles, Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger and Hannah Wexner beat Gates Mills Hawken's Sydney Green and Emily Leizman.
Other major semi-final matches included the following contests. DeSales' My Linh Li defeated the defending state DII singles champion, West Holmes' Rachel Nelson. Mount Notre Dame's Sandy Niehaus beat Ursuline Academy's Mehvish Safdar, who was the defending DI singles champion. Dublin Jerome's Sarah and Emma Stein beat Watterson's Katie Shepherd and Lauren Ghidotti, but Watterson rebounded to take third place by defeating Dublin Jerome's Ellee Bullock and Caitlyn Merzbacher.
The complete results are available via this OHSAA link.
There were three newspaper articles written about the championship. Click for Steve Blackledge's article in the Columbus Dispatch. Jarrod Ulrey wrote two articles, one for the Cincinnati Enquirer and another for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
A video of the championship point for the Division II doubles is available to the right. The championship point for Division I doubles should be available later tonight.
Congratulations to all of the girls.
The Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association tournament will be held today at the new Reynoldsburg High School courts. I will be there later this morning to take pictures and gather the results.
October 20, 2012: [8:30am Update: The tournament will be played at Elysium today.] The rain held off until the entire first round was finished yesterday. The second round was completed at Elysium Tennis. The number of semi-finalists from each District were: Central - 7; Southwest - 4; Southeast/East - 2; and Northeast - 2. The Central District will win DI doubles -- it has all four semi-finalists. Southwest is favored in DI singles because it has three of four semi-finalists.
You may click on the OHSAA draw links to see all of the results. The results are also in the database.
There were several nice newspaper articles about yesterday's play -- all by one very busy Jarrod Ulrey. Click on the following links: Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and Toledo Blade. Please say "thank you" if you see him today!
Please let it rain so we do not have to return to Hilliard Davidson. If you have ever wondered why it is so windy at Hilliard Davidson, please recall the flags at the top of Ohio Stadium. There is barely a breeze near the river while the flags are holding on for dear life. Hilliard Davidson is at the same elevation as the Ohio Stadium press box. Here is a video that I created after the 2007 Finals in an attempt to dissuade future play there. My apologies for the quality, but the high screens prevent make it very difficult to take quality video. When you consider the venues used for other state championships such as soccer (Crew Stadium) and baseball (Huntington Park), it is very unfortunate that our girls have to play at Hilliard Davidson ever other year. This is where Cincinnati plays its tennis sectional. Click here for where we play the Ohio High School Girls State Tennis Championship. It is great that the OTCA tournament is at Reynoldsburg this year. If it works out well at Reynoldsburg, hopefully that location will be considered for 2014 for the second day of States.
Good luck with today's play. Hope to see you there.
October 19, 2012: Today is the first day of States. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. [States were rained out at Ohio State at 3pm. Play is being moved to Elysium. It may be necessary to take a shuttle bus from Sports Ohio to Elysium. Click here for details.]
The Columbus Dispatch's Steve Blackledge wrote a nice article for States. It featured the DiLorenzo sisters, but it also provided a nice summary on all Central District participants.
The teams competing for the OTCA championship in Division I are: Dublin Jerome, Ursuline Academy, Magnificat, and Notre Dame. In Division II the teams are: Columbus Academy, Indian Hill, Hathaway Brown, and Lexington. (Only the Central and Southwest District teams have full-season results.)
For those teams participating in the OTCA tournament on Sunday. Please contact Reynoldsburg's Coach Les Somogyi if you would like to hit on the courts before Sunday. If you need Les' contact information, please send me a feedback message.
We live close to the OSU courts so I'll keep an eye on the weather.
 |
Hathaway Brown Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
October 18, 2012: States is tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will not be a repeat of last year's. Click to read tennis articles in the Cincinnati Enquirer and Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Hathaway Brown is the Division II OTCA representative from the Northeast District. Their picture is to the right.
After the girls season ends, the daily updates will soon become weekly updates and then monthly updates until the boys season starts. If you would like to be alerted via email with any new updates, please click on the banner ad on the right. If you are already a member, it is not necessary to enter your information. You will automatically receive alerts.
Just as almost all of the Top Players in the Central District have their photos online, I can do the same for the Southwest District players. If you see me at States tomorrow or Saturday, or at the OTCA Tournament on Sunday and you would like to have your photo included, please let me know when you see me. The photo to the right is a couple of years old, but I still largely look like that. There is just less hair under the hat.
Good luck at States tomorrow. I will have a photo for each Central District States Qualifier and coach so please look for me.
October 17, 2012: While usage remains high, it is time to name the best coaches for this year. There are many ways to identify the Central District's best coaches. The criteria could include: won / lost records; improvement of players during the season; records against teams of similar ability; ability to schedule quality matches for the kids; number of kids with great academic results; number of players reaching Sectionals / Districts / States; number of college players from the school; etc.. One non-subjective way to evaluate coaches is to see how well their players performed in three-set matches.
| School | Coach | Wins | Losses | Total | % |
| Hartley | Lynn Winters | 5 | 0 | 5 | 100% |
| Grandview | Steve Hall | 8 | 2 | 10 | 80% |
| Grove City | Dan Witteman | 4 | 1 | 5 | 80% |
| Hilliard Bradley | Ben Lilly | 4 | 1 | 5 | 80% |
| Groveport | Doug Ewart | 6 | 2 | 8 | 75% |
| Whetstone | Bucky Walters | 5 | 2 | 7 | 71% |
| Worthington Christian | Midge Taylor | 5 | 2 | 7 | 71% |
| New Albany | Mark Thomas | 5 | 2 | 7 | 71% |
| Reynoldsburg | Les Somogyi | 9 | 4 | 13 | 69% |
| Lancaster | Gary Elick | 6 | 3 | 9 | 67% |
| West | James Murray | 6 | 3 | 9 | 67% |
| Olentangy Liberty | Christine Kaeding | 6 | 3 | 9 | 67% |
| Canal Winchester | Jason Moisey | 4 | 2 | 6 | 67% |
| Dublin Jerome | Tyler Stephen | 4 | 2 | 8 | 67% |
| Pickerington Central | Kelli Rings | 7 | 4 | 11 | 64% |
| Pickerington North | Brian Hoff | 8 | 5 | 13 | 61% |
Why three-set matches? The reasons include: the competition is of similar ability; three-setters take place near the end of the match when the coach is not occupied with four other matches; and the coach has had time to evaluate the strengths and weakness of the opponents and advise his or her players on the best strategy.
Congratulations to the coaches included in the table. Each has a 60% or better winning percentage in three-set matches. (Ten additional coaches had winning, three-set records.)
Being on this list every once in awhile is probably better than never being on it, but again, it is just one of many different ways of looking at the season. Personally, if I were on this list, I would sprint to my AD's office and use it as definitive evidence of my great coaching ability; otherwise, it might not come up in our next conversation. While I certainly would not not condone this, I have also heard some coaches, who are on this list, kindly share how they are a superior coach based on this information.
Of all of the matches played in Ohio, 10% were three setters. In some of these, "super tie-breaks" were used to decide a match. Those were excluded in the analysis because no coaching takes place prior to a super tie-break. Only those coaches who had five or more three-setters were included. Please also note that not all results may have been reported.
More than half of the above coaches are members of Gerber Analytics.
October 16, 2012:
Dublin Jerome defeated
New Albany, 3-1, to earn their spot in the Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association (OTCA) Final Four. Dublin Jerome is the Central District representative for Division I, and Columbus Academy is the Division II Central District representative. The Southwest District's representatives are Ursuline Academy for Division I and
Indian Hill for Division II. If anyone is aware of the other state Final Four participants, please let me know. It is not updated on the OTCA web site.
The great news for Ohio high school tennis is that Reynoldsburg will be hosting the OTCA tournament this fall. To view the brochure provided by Les Somogyi, the Reynoldsburg coach, please click here.
 |
 |
Division I and Division II - Click to enlarge |
October 15, 2012: Congratulations again to the girls who qualified for States from the Central District. Pictures of the Division I and Division II qualifiers are to the right. Please click to enlarge the pictures and to see the names.
The State draws should be released today. Hopefully, they will be done correctly for Division I. There is a history of having Central District's first and second seeds playing against the Southwest District's first and second seeds in the second round. Southwest and Central have historically been the two strongest Districts. Of course, it is not possible to create a good Division II draw since there are five number 1 seeds and five number two seeds. (This is one reason why wrestling has four districts of equal size.) [11:45am - The draws are now available. Hartley's Rachael Morales & Cincinnati Country Day's Danielle Wolf would meet in second round.]
The big, OTCA Division I final will be tonight at Dublin Jerome. Jerome plays New Albany. See you there.
October 14, 2012: The Central and Southwest District seeds are listed below in the table.
Among the top players, Dublin Jerome's Lauren Bellinger defeated Hilliard Bradley's Ashley Thai and Olentangy Liberty's Sydney Power in the finals. DeSales' My Linh Li beat Hartley's Rachael Morales in the Division II finals.
The Cincinnati Enquirer wrote two, good articles that summarized their district tournament. Click for the Division I and Division II tournament results.
The database is updated with the results. To see the individual scores, please refer to the Top Players' Report for the Central and Southwest Districts.
Central District State Qualifiers |
|
| Division I - Singles | Doubles |
| 1. Lauren Bellinger (Dublin Jerome) | Francesca Di Lorenzo - Cristina Di Lorenzo (New Albany) |
| 2. Sydney Power (Olentangy Liberty) | Sarah Stein - Emma Stein (Dublin Jerome) |
| 3. Ashley Thai (Hilliard Bradley) | Lauren Ghidotti - Katie Shepherd (Watterson) |
| 4. Ashley Tan (Dublin Coffman) | Ellee Bullock - Caitlyn Merzbacher (Dublin Jerome) |
| Division II - Singles | Doubles |
| 1. My Linh Li (DeSales) | Andrea Ballinger - Hannah Wexner (Columbus Academy) |
| 2. Rachael Morales (Hartley) | Mary Anne Click - Tiffany Lau (Columbus School for Girls) |
Southwest District State Qualifiers |
|
| Division I - Singles | Doubles |
| 1. Mehvish Safdar (Ursuline Academy) | Tori Turner - Nicole Soutar (Lakota West) |
| 2. Amina Ismail (Kings) | Taylor Holden - Maddy Mueck (Lakota East) |
| 3. Sandy Niehaus (Mount Notre Dame) | Alexa Abele - Maggie Skwara (Sycamore) |
| 4. Julie Brockman (Springboro) | Nina Cepeda - Lynn Kelly (Mason) |
| Division II - Singles | Doubles |
| 1. Danielle Wolf (Cincinnati Country Day ) | Natalie Allen - Brooke Sandridge (Chaminade-Julienne) |
| 2. Haley Thoresen (Wyoming) | Megan Connelly - Annie Lutz (Oakwood) |
| 3. Sierra Nellessen (Tippecanoe) | Caroline Blackburn - Mackenzie Patterson (Cincinnati Country Day) |
| 4. Rheanna Morehart (Miamisburg) | Grace He - Jessica Seibold (Seven Hills ) |
October 13, 2012: The Central and Southwest District State spots are set. Congratulations to the players and coaches.
The seeds for the Central District are shown to the right. To see the full season results for each player, click on her Player Profile link.
The closest matches from Friday include: Dublin Jerome's Sarah Stein - Emma Stein defeated Upper Arlington's Elaine Cloern - Audrey Berger, 6-3, 6-3; Dublin Jerome's Ellee Bullock - Caitlyn Merzbacher beat Pickerington Central's Kyah Thomas - Nithya Raya, 6-1, 6-7, 6-3; Chillicothe's Taylor Sprouse defeated Dublin Coffman's Ashwatha Thennapan, 6-4, 6-3; and Columbus School for Girls' Tiffany Lau - Mary Anne Click beat Wellington's Aashika Katapadi - Casey Hansen, 6-4, 6-4.
The results for Friday are now in the database for the Cincinnati and Columbus Districts.
All of the Central District players are on the Top Players List and most of the Southwest District players are on My List of the Southwest Ohio's Top Players list.
October 12, 2012: One of the goals of this web site is to help connect high school tennis players who have an interest in playing college tennis (at any level) with college coaches. Since not every player who has the skills to play college tennis is interested in playing college tennis, I have created another report to help the college coaches identify those players who are interested. If you have an interest in playing college tennis, please contact your high school tennis coach. Your coach can contact me.
To view the report, please sign in. Please note that those players who have obtained Player Profiles are available without sign-in. College coaches are provided with free access to this web site to help you and to help them.
See you at Districts.
October 11, 2012: Districts are tomorrow. Good luck to all of the participants.
There was one match last night. Pickerington Central defeated Columbus School for Girls, 5-0.
In doubles, Pickerington Central's Kyah Thomas and Nithya Raya beat Columbus School for Girls' Tiffany Lau and Mary Anne Click.
Many high school parents gather mementos for senior scrapbooks. Parents and coaches who are members of Gerber Analytics have the ability to retrieve an end-of-season report that shows all of the dual match, Sectional, and District matches for their player(s). Click here for the report for St. Charles. If you are a member, sign-in first and then click here for your team's report.
The Dublin Jerome versus New Albany match for the Central District OTCA Division 1 crown is slated for Monday at Dublin Jerome.
I will be at both sites tomorrow.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Row 1: Whetstone's Alex Myers and Abby Nypaver. Row 2: West's Katherine Bustos and Halima Omar. Click to enlarge. (The picture of Nypaver was taken earlier in the season.) |
|
October 10, 2012: There were four matches recorded last night. New Albany defeated Upper Arlington in the OTCA semi-final by the score of 4-1. In other matches, Thomas Worthington beat Centennial; Pickerington North defeated Dublin Scioto; and Pickerington Central beat Columbus Academy.
Among the top players, the doubles team of Pickerington Central's Kyah Thomas and Nithya Raya defeated Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger and Hannah Wexner.
The pictures today include several players who competed in the City League Championship match between Whetstone and West on Monday night.
 |
Whetstone Tennis Team - Click to enlarge Picture by Karen Eldredge |
After an exceptional high school career that included qualifying for States three times and winning the Division 2 State Doubles Championship, Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai
suffered a season-ending knee injury last week. Please wish her well with her
recovery.
Jill Fergus, the head coach of the Thomas Worthington girls team, is president of Fairy Goodmothers. This worthy group collects and distributes (free of charge) new and gently used formal dresses so that girls can attend their high school proms. They helped almost 1,000 girls last year. To learn more about how you can donate a dress or acquire a dress, please click here.
Upper Arlington will play New Albany in the Division I OTCA semi-final tonight. I will see you at the match.
October 8, 2012: The Central District draws were just released [10:30am]. They are listed above.
In D1 doubles, none of the number 1 seeds will want to face Dublin Jerome's Stein sisters in the State qualifying round. The Stein's are the number 2 seeds after being defeated by teammates, Ellee Bullock and Caitlyn Merzbacher. [Update: The Stein's will play Upper Arlington's Elaine Cloern and Audrey Berger in the qualifying round if they both win their first match.]
In D1 singles, there are certainly favorites, but it is very wide open. The draws will be critical.
In D2 singles, there are two clear favorites for the two State spots. They are Hartley's Rachael Morales and DeSales' My Linh Li. In D2 doubles, there is one clear favorite, Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger-Hannah Wexner.
I will be at the City League Championship match at the Park of Roses today. Whetstone plays West.
October 7, 2012: It was a wild day at the Sectionals yesterday. Several of the biggest matches were: Dublin Jerome's Lauren Bellinger defeated Hilliard Bradley's Ashley Thai; Dublin Coffman's Ashley Tan beat Dublin Coffman's Ashwatha Thenappan and Watterson's Courtney Brown; Dublin Jerome's Ellee Bullock-Caitlyn Merzbacher defeated Dublin Jerome's Sarah Stein-Emma Stein; and Olentangy Liberty's Sydney Power defeated Olentangy Liberty's Alexia Meyer. In Division II, Hartley's Rachael Morales beat DeSales' My Linh Li. Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai could not play due to injury.
The results are in the database under each of the various schools.
 |
Dublin Scioto Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
More than 100 additional matches were added to the database this morning to complete the results of the Cincinnati Sectional. It was finished yesterday.
Good luck in today's seeding round.
October 5, 2012: It was a great day for the tennis Sectionals yesterday. There were a few seeds who were upset, but none of the higher seeds. The data is now online.
Some of the closer matches among the top players included: New Albany's Priyal Reddy defeated Worthington Kilbourne's Kelley Jiang and Olentangy Liberty's Alexia Meyer beat Upper Arlington's Jessica Patton. Both were three set matches.
Ursuline Academy defeated Sycamore, 4-1, in OTCA play. The match included three 3-setters. Ursuline Academy will represent the Southwest District in the Final Four. Ursuline Academy is undefeated.
Congratulations to the players who reached Districts. The seeding round for Districts will take place tomorrow.
October 4, 2012: Despite it being Sectional Eve, there were still numerous matches played yesterday. Upper Arlington defeated Pickerington Central; Upper Arlington - B beat Columbus School for Girls; Reynoldsburg defeated Groveport; Worthington Kilbourne beat Gahanna; and Fisher Catholic defeated Wellington.
Among the top players, Upper Arlington's Elaine Cloern defeated Pickerington Central's Kyah Thomas and Gahanna's Kiara Shaw beat Worthington Kilbourne's Kelley Jiang.
Cincinnati started their Sectional play yesterday. Hopefully the weather holds for the Columbus-area today. Good luck!
October 3, 2012: Twelve matches were recorded yesterday. Two of the matches were 3-2 contests. They were Westerville South defeated Delaware Hayes and Canal Winchester beat Grove City. In their dual (not OTCA) match, Dublin Jerome defeated Upper Arlington.
Several matches with players on My Top Players List were played. Dublin Jerome's Sarah Stein defeated Upper Arlington's Elaine Cloern and Dublin Jerome's Emma Stein beat Upper Arlington's Audrey Berger.
There is one match scheduled for tonight. Whetstone plays West.
Sectionals are tomorrow!
 |
Upper Arlington Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
The matches including the top players were: Dublin Jerome's Sarah Stein defeated Pickerington Central's Nithya Raya and Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger beat Bexley's Becca Landon.
Matches scheduled for tonight include: Big Walnut versus Buckeye Valley; Canal Winchester versus Grove City; Dublin Coffman versus Pickerington Central; Granville versus Gahanna; and Worthington Christian versus Wellington. I will be at the match between Dublin Jerome and Upper Arlington at UA..
 |
Dublin Jerome Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Upper Arlington's Elaine Cloern defeated Olentangy Liberty's Sydney Power and Upper Arlington's Audrey Berger beat Dublin Coffman's Ashley Tan.
Tonight's matches include: Bexley versus Columbus School For Girls; Big Walnut versus Worthington Christian; Grove City versus Chillicothe; Groveport versus Teays Valley; Hilliard Darby versus Marysville; Thomas Worthington versus Dublin Scioto; and Whetstone versus Bloom-Carroll.
September 30, 2012:The Ohio Capital Conference tournament was played yesterday. Two of the four scores were reported. New Albany won the Capital Division, followed by Olentangy and Olentangy Orange. Dublin Jerome won the Cardinal Division. Hilliard Bradley and Dublin Scioto came in second and third, respectively.
There were numerous matches among the top players. Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai defeated Dublin Jerome's Lauren Bellinger; Dublin Jerome's Sarah Stein beat Hilliard Bradley's Ashley Thai; and New Albany's Francesca Di Lorenzo defeated Olentangy's Megan Brdicki.
Several college decisions have been finalized. Hartley's Rachael Morales will play college tennis for Marshall; Dublin Jerome's Lauren Bellinger will attend Cincinnati; Watterson's Katie Shepherd will go to Milwaukee-Wisconsin; and Olentangy's Megan Brdicki will attend Wright State. Upper Arlington's Elaine Cloern announced several months ago that she will play college tennis for Wright State.
September 29, 2012: Yesterday's matches included: Upper Arlington defeated Dublin Coffman, 3-2; Olentangy Liberty beat Thomas Worthington; Olentangy Orange defeated Watkins Memorial; and Dublin Scioto beat Westerville South. In Cincinnati, Ursuline Academy defeated Springboro and Indian Hill.
Indian Hill will be coming to Columbus to play in the Division II Final Four. More information about the Indian Hill team is available in this Cincinnati Enquirer article. Ursuline Academy and Sycamore play in the finals on October 4 to determine which team will represent the Southwest District in Columbus.
Among the top players, there were two matches. Upper Arlington's Elaine Cloern defeated Dublin Coffman's Ashwatha Thenappan and Dublin Coffman's Ashley Tan beat Upper Arlington's Audrey Berger.
The Ohio Capital Conference tournament is today. There will be no aces recorded for tournaments.
September 28, 2012: There were no matches played in the Columbus area, but six matches were played in Cincinnati. The notable matches were Cincinnati Country Day defeated Seven Hills, 3-2, and Ursuline Academy beat Indian Hill, 4-1.
 |
 |
My Linh Li with her parents, Tom and Tan (Click to enlarge) |
Accepting Matt Wareti's award are his parents and brother, Yohannes, Jacob, and Misrak |
The Greater Columbus Tennis Association (GCTA) held its annual awards ceremony yesterday evening. The Margo Mansfield Award for the Female Player of the Year was won by DeSales' My Linh Li. Matt Wareti, a Bexley graduate and a freshman at University of Toledo, won the Male Player of the Year.
There are many benefits of playing tennis but the ability to play your entire life is extremely important to most players. The GCTA offers many programs that benefit all age groups. The other award winners were: Christine Davis (Lifetime Achievement), Fran McCabe (Special Recognition), Denica Bruce (Promotion of Tennis), Gordon McNamee (Promotion of Tennis), Torrie Goudy (Columbus Recreation and Parks), Paul Batterson (Media Award), and Bud Peterson (Umpire of the Year). To view the program from yesterday's awards ceremony, click here. If you are a tennis player in central Ohio, you will recognize many of the names. Congratulations to the award winners.
 |
Bexley Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, DeSales' My Linh Li defeated Watterson's Katie Shepherd.
The match between Dublin Jerome and Upper Arlington takes place tonight at Upper Arlington at 4:00. Other matches include: Bexley versus Watterson; Dublin Coffman versus New Albany; Olentangy Orange versus Thomas Worthington; Watterson versus Bexley; Westerville North versus Big Walnut; and Worthington Kilbourne versus Chillicothe.
 |
Hilliard Bradley Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
September 26, 2012: The only 3-2 contest from last night was Westerville South over Westerville North. Hilliard Bradley also won the tennis battle of Hilliard by defeating Hilliard Darby, 5-0.
The State Poll was listed in today's Dispatch. The D1 poll is in-sync with the thinking of the local coaches, but not the D2 poll. Please note that the links for the Cincinnati-area schools include the full results for each school. The polls are as follows.
Division I
1. Dublin Jerome (7) 79; 2. Ursuline Academy (1) 55; 3. New Albany 54; 4. Upper Arlington 53; 5. North Canton Hoover 43; 6. Lakota East 27; 7. Pickerington Central 26; 8. Sycamore 25; 9. Springboro 24; 10. Watterson 17.
Division II
1. Dayton Oakwood (2) 55; 2. Columbus Academy (3) 52; 3. Lexington 41; 4. Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy 32; 5. Cincinnati Country Day 26; 6. Toledo Maumee Valley 25; 7. Bexley 16; 8. Kettering Alter 14; 9. Ottawa Hills 12; 10. Seven Hills 11. Also: 12. Columbus School for Girls 9.
The aces keep rolling in. The leaders on the Ace Report are: Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai, Hilliard Bradley's Ashley Thai, New Albany's Jane Haffer, and Thomas Worthington's Monica Chang.
Matches scheduled for tonight include: DeSales versus Watterson; Granville versus Wellington; Hartley versus Hilliard Bradley; Hilliard Darby versus Lancaster; and Olentangy versus Hilliard Davidson.
 |
Columbus Academy Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
September 25, 2012:The number of matches are winding down in central Ohio. There were eight matches last night. Three of the matches were close, 3-2 contests. They included: Dublin Coffman defeated DeSales; Upper Arlington - B beat Dublin Scioto; and Central Crossing defeated Teays Valley. The Columbus City League tournament began yesterday, and it will finish on Wednesday.
In singles play, DeSales' My Linh Li defeated Dublin Coffman's Ashley Tan.Matches slated for tonight include: Delaware Hayes versus Olentangy; Dublin Coffman versus Upper Arlington; Gahanna versus Pickerington Central; Hilliard Bradley versus Hilliard Darby; Olentangy Liberty versus Thomas Worthington; and Westerville North versus Westerville South;
In D1 doubles, those with the best chance to get to States are: Hilliard Davidson site: Dublin Jerome's Sarah and Emma Stein (1 seed); Dublin Jerome's Ellee Bullock-Caitlyn Merzbacher (2); Pickerington Central site: Watterson's Lauren Ghidotti-Katie Shepherd (1), Pickerington Central's Nithya Raya-Kyah Thomas (2); Reynoldsburg site: Francesca and Cristina Di Lorenzo (1); and Upper Arlington site: Elaine Cloern-Audrey Berger (1).
Division II has just two spots for States. In singles, I favor: Columbus School for Girls site: Hartley's Rachael Morales (1) and DeSales' My Linh Li (2). The doubles teams to watch are: Columbus Academy site: Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger-Hannah Wexner (1) and Wellington's Aashika Katapadi-Casey Hansen (2); and Columbus School for Girls site: Columbus School for Girls' Mary Anne Click-Tiffany Lau (1).
The Columbus City School League starts its tournament today at Whetstone (Park of Roses) and South. I will be stopping by both sites.
September 23, 2012: The Mid-State League tournament was held yesterday. Columbus Academy won the Cardinal Tournament while Bexley placed second. The winner of the Buckeye Tournament was Logan Elm, and Canal Winchester was second. In Cincinnati's Greater Cincinnati Tennis Association Classic tournament, Sycamore won the Flight A team title.
In the Cincinnati tournament, Mount Notre Dame's Sandy Niehaus defeated Cincinnati Country Day's Danielle Wolf and Ursuline Academy's Mehvish Safdar beat Sycamore's Alexa Abele. For the results on all of the Cincinnati area's top players, click here.
The Sectional Draws are today. The goal is to have them online by tonight. It will be extremely interesting to see who will be playing singles and doubles in the Central District. Central's draw will be of interest statewide. The draws are now available. See above.
 |
Independence Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
The individual scores for the Dublin Jerome versus New Albany match were as follows. In singles, New Albany's Francesca Di Lorenzo defeated Dublin Jerome's Lauren Bellinger, 6-3, 6-1; Cristina Di Lorenzo beat Sarah Stein, 6-1, 6-0; and Dublin Jerome's Caitlyn Merzbacher defeated New Albany's Carol Vitellas, 6-4, 6-3. In doubles, Dublin Jerome's Emma Stein and Rhiannon James beat Jane Haffer and Sydney Setnar, 6-3, 6-1, and Dublin Jerome's Ellee Bullock and Sophia Gomez defeated Alyssa Seneviratne and Priyal Reddy, 6-3, 6-1.
The database of all of the scores will be updated later today. (This is why the individual scores were posted today.)
| Central District | |
| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Dublin Jerome - 48 | 1. Columbus Academy - 40 |
| 2. New Albany - 47 | 2. Columbus School for Girls - 36 |
| 3. Upper Arlington - 40 | 3. DeSales - 30 |
| 4. Watterson - 33 | 4. Hartley - 27 |
| 5. Pickerington Central - 25 | 5. Worthington Christian - 23 |
| 6. Dublin Coffman - 22 | 5. Bexley - 18 |
| 7. Olentangy Liberty - 21 | 7. Wellington - 13 |
| 8. Hilliard Bradley - 16 | 8. Grandview - 12 |
| 9. Hilliard Davidson - 8 | 8. Granville - 12 |
| 10. Dublin Scioto - 5 | 10. Village Academy - 5 |
September 21, 2012: There were numerous interesting match-ups yesterday. First, the close matches were: Hartley defeated DeSales; Big Walnut beat Thomas Worthington; Pickerington Northdefeated Chillicothe; Gahanna beat Olentangy Orange; Grandview defeated Marysville; and Canal Winchester beat Teays Valley.
Other notable matches included: Pickerington Central defeated Watterson; New Albany beat Hilliard Bradley; and Upper Arlington defeated Columbus Academy
| State Coaches' Poll | |
| Division I | Division II |
| 1. Dublin Jerome (7) 97 | 1. Dayton Oakwood (2) 57 |
| 2. New Albany 76 | 2. Lexington (2) 54 |
| 3. Upper Arlington (1) 63 | 3. Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy 45 |
| 4. Ursuline Academy (1) 62 | 4. Toledo Maumee Valley 43 |
| 5. North Canton Hoover (1) 50 | 5. Toledo Ottawa Hills 36 |
| 6. Lakota East 35 | 6. Cincinnati Country Day 27 |
| 7. Pickerington Central 29 | 7. Columbus Academy (1) 25 |
| 8. Springboro 25 | 8. Bexley 22 |
| 9. Sycamore 19 | 9. Kettering Alter 21 |
| 10. Rocky River Magnificat 18 | 10. Seven Hills 18 |
| 11. Bishop Watterson 17 | 11 Dayton Chaminade-Julienne 15 |
Thanks to the coaches who voted for today's Central District Coaches' Poll. The results are to the right.
There were numerous matches among the top players. They included: Hartley's Rachael Morales defeated DeSales' My Linh Li; Watterson's Lauren Ghidotti beat Pickerington Central's Kyah Thomas; and Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger defeated Upper Arlington's Elaine Cloern. In doubles, Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai and Ashley Thai defeated New Albany's Francesca Di Lorenzo and Cristina Di Lorenzo.
There was also a state coaches' poll. Those results are posted to the right.
Dublin Jerome and New Albany play tonight.
September 20, 2012: It was another big night for tennis. There were 22 matches played in the Columbus area and 15 in Cincinnati. Many of the close matches were also important from league and Sectional seeding standpoints. They included: Whetstone defeated Centennial; Columbus School for Girls beat DeSales; Olentangy Liberty defeated Pickerington Central; Hilliard Bradley beat Gahanna; Dublin Coffman defeated Upper Arlington - B; Northland beat Linden-McKinley; Bexley defeated Worthington Kilbourne; and Central Crossing beat Ready.
 |
West Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
At the beginning of the season, I had a drawing for coaches to win team pictures. To enter the drawing, a coach had to use my input system which conveniently and easily sends the scores to the Columbus Dispatch. West High School's Coach Jim Murray was the first winner. Each member of his team will receive a 6x8 photo.
Several of the top players competed against each other. They included: Olentangy Liberty's Sydney Power defeated Pickerington Central's Kyah Thomas; Pickerington Central's Nithya Raya beat Olentangy Liberty's Alexia Meyer; and Dublin Jerome's Lauren Bellinger defeated Chillicothe's Taylor Sprouse.
For those who would like to vote for the Top Ten Teams, please do so by 8:00pm. I hope to get the coaches' poll in the Dispatch tomorrow to help the coaches seed teams for the Sectional draw.
Interesting matches tonight include: Bexley versus Worthington Christian; Columbus Academy versus Upper Arlington; DeSales versus Hartley; Gahanna versus Olentangy Orange; Granville versus Columbus School for Girls; Hilliard Bradley versus New Albany; and Watterson versus Pickerington Central.
 |
Olentangy Liberty Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
September 19, 2012: There were 21 matches recorded yesterday. The most competitive matches included: Olentangy Liberty defeated Dublin Coffman; Worthington Christian beat DeSales; Pickerington North defeated Gahanna; Hilliard Bradley beat Dublin Scioto; Bloom-Carroll defeated Teays Valley; and Canal Winchester beat Circleville.
Please keep the above matches in mind as you vote for the Top Ten Teams. Another vote will be held on Thursday in preparation for the Sectional draw on Sunday.
Among the top players, Olentangy Liberty's Sydney Power is back in action. She defeated Dublin Coffman's Ash Thenapppan.
Tonight's matches include: Dublin Jerome versus Dublin Coffman; Gahanna versus Hilliard Bradley; Granville versus Village Academy; Olentangy versus Buckeye Valley; Upper Arlington versus Chillicothe; and West versus Independence. I will be at the West versus Independence match tonight.
 |
Grandview Heights Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
September 18, 2012: Eighteen matches were played last night. There were just two close matches - West defeated Whitehall and River Valley beat Delaware Hayes.
In an important match in Cincinnati, Ursuline Academy defeated Lakota East.
There were no matches among the top players in Columbus. In Cincinnati, Ursuline Academy's Mehvish Safdar defeated Lakota East's Maddy Mueck. More players will be added to My List of Southwest Ohio's Top Players over the next two days.
There is a full slate of matches scheduled for tonight. They include: Bexley versus Granville; Big Walnut versus Olentangy Orange; DeSales versus Worthington Christian; Dublin Coffman versus Olentangy Liberty; Grove City versus Lancaster; and Watterson versus Columbus School for Girls.
 |
Olentangy Orange Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
September 17, 2012: This Sunday is the Sectional draw. Coaches will refer to this site for individual and team performance rankings.
Another Top Ten Teams poll will be done on Thursday to assist the coaches with identifying the top teams.
My List of Top Central Ohio Players will be another source of information, but I would encourage coaches to refer more to each player's performance rather than to my rankings this year. The Central District has an exceptional group of strong players this year, and in numerous cases, player A has beaten player B who has beaten player C who has beaten player A. As stated in the Frequently Asked Questions, any player on my list should be within 3-4 places on your list, but that might not be the case for this season.
Last spring for the boys, the Northwest District performed their draw later than the other districts which led to an embargo on the draw data. Hopefully, that will not be the case for the girls this season.
On a trial basis, there is now information for most of the Southwest District teams and some Northeast and Northwest teams. Click here for more. Also posted is My List of Southwest Ohio's Top Players.
Watterson played Magnificat and Jackson. Watterson beat Magnificat, 3-2, but lost to Jackson, 4-1.
Among the top players, Watterson's Lauren Ghidotti was defeated by Jackson's Tessa Hill and Magnificat's Emily Witt.
September 16, 2012: There were numerous matches among the top teams in Ohio yesterday. They included: Upper Arlington defeated both Rocky River Magnificat and Massillon Jackson; Dublin Jerome beat Lexington and Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit; and Columbus Academy defeated Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit. In other action, Bexley beat Fisher Catholic. In invitational play, Logan Elm won the Grandview Invitational; Upper Arlington-B won the Hilliard Davidson Doubles Classic; and Watterson-B won the Wellington Cup.
Among the top players, Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger defeated Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit's Katelyn Hissong and Magnificat's Emily Witt beat Upper Arlington's Elaine Cloern.
 |
Eastmoor Academy Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Hilliard Davidson has a tournament today and Dublin Jerome is playing Lexington.
September 14, 2012: The weather continued to be perfect last night. The close matches included: Grandview defeated Buckeye Valley; Lancaster beat Reynoldsburg; Centennial defeated Briggs; and Hamilton Township beat Teays Valley.
The Top Ten Girls Teams report is now available. This report includes the pictures of the teams and the results of each match (for those who sign-in). Click on the pictures to zoom in for a closer view.
Among the top players, Hartley's Rachael Morales defeated Watterson's Lauren Ghidotti; and Dublin Jerome's Lauren Bellinger beat Worthington Kilbourne's Kelley Jiang.
The Ace Report has been updated. The top three players remain the same. They are: Hilliard Bradley's Ashley Thai, Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai, and New Albany's Jane Haffer.
This is the time of year when readers notice that a match, which was not in the Dispatch, is not included on the web site. It is time consuming process to add these matches in the database when they fall outside of my normal processing, but I will do it for paying members if you have all of the scores for that match. Please though, no more than one or two. This requires a substantial amount of time to do. Please send me an email to include a match. Of course, the best way avoid this issue is to ask your coach to use my data entry system, which sends the results to the Dispatch.
Matches tonight include: Delaware Hayes versus Worthington Christian;
Thomas Worthington versus Worthington Kilbourne; and Upper Arlington versus Wellington. Hilliard Davidson has a tournament tomorrow.
| Division I |
| 1. Dublin Jerome - 49 |
| 2. New Albany - 45 |
| 3. Upper Arlington - 40 |
| 4. Watterson - 33 |
| 5. Pickerington Central - 29 |
| 6. Hilliard Bradley - 24 |
| 7. Dublin Coffman - 14 |
| 8. Olentangy Liberty - 13 |
| 9. Hilliard Davidson - 10 |
| 10. Gahanna - 5 |
| Division II |
| 1. Columbus Academy - 40 |
| 2. Columbus School for Girls - 35 |
| 3. DeSales - 31 |
| 4. Hartley - 23 |
| 5. Bexley - 22 |
| 5. Worthington Christian - 22 |
| 7. Wellington - 16 |
| 8. Granville - 10 |
| 9. Grandview - 8 |
| 10. Village Academy - 6 |
Thanks to the coaches who voted in the Coaches' Poll. Dublin Jerome and Columbus Academy lead the polls for Division 1 and Division 2, respectively. The Top Ten Teams page will be updated later today.
Among the top players, New Albany's Francesca Di Lorenzo defeated Pickerington Central's Kyah Thomas; Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai beat Dublin Coffman's Ashwatha Thenappan; New Albany's Cristina Di Lorenzo defeated Pickerington Central's Nithya Raya; Hilliard Bradley's Ashley Thai beat Dublin Coffman's Ashley Tan; Lexington's Elise Betscher defeated Upper Arlington's Elaine Cloern; and Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger beat Columbus School for Girls' Mary Anne Click.
Tonight's matches include: Bexley versus DeSales; Hilliard Davidson versus Olentangy Liberty; Watterson versus Hartley; Whetstone versus Eastmoor Academy; and Worthington Christian versus Olentangy.
Among the top players, Hilliard Bradley's Ashley Thai defeated Worthington Kilbourne's Kelley Jiang and Hartley's Rachael Morales beat Columbus School for Girls' Mary Anne Click.
It would be great to receive a few more votes for the Top Girls Teams. To vote, please click here.
 |
Briggs Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
There were just two matches among the top players. DeSales' My Linh Li defeated Bexley's Becca Landon and New Albany's Francesca Di Lorenzo beat Olentangy Liberty's Alexia Meyer.
The responses to the, "Which Girls Team Pages Has Drawn the Most Interest on Gerber Analytics?", poll question was reasonably close to reality. Voters chose: Dublin Jerome - 54%; Pickerington Central - 29%; Olentangy Liberty - 11%; New Albany - 6%; and Upper Arlington - 0%. The actual order (and this is based on activity from August 6 to September 7) was: Pickerington Central, Dublin Jerome, New Albany, Olentangy Liberty, and Upper Arlington. The next five were: Columbus Academy, Olentangy Orange, Hilliard Bradley, Dublin Coffman, and Thomas Worthington.
Tonight will be a big tennis night. The matches include: Bexley versus Grandview; Big Walnut versus Mount Vernon; Grove City versus Pickerington Central; New Albany versus Olentangy; Reynoldsburg versus Pickerington North; Upper Arlington versus Hilliard Davidson; Westerville Central versus Westerville North; and Worthington Kilbourne versus Hilliard Bradley. For the complete list, click here.
September 10, 2012: The voting has begun for the Top Girls teams. As mentioned before, the Matrix Report greatly helps with this process because it provides the relative performance of each team against the others. Please note that all votes are accumulated before the Top Girls poll is updated. [Coaches who would like to vote but who are not members of Gerber Analytics, may send me an email with their votes.]
New for this season are the Player Profile reports for paying members. These reports provide all of the results for each player so that a player can post her results in Facebook, TennisRecruiting.net, etc. They are also an ideal way of sharing results with family members, relatives, college coaches, and friends. Another added benefit is that whenever a player is included in this daily blog, a link to her player profile is included. Click to read the profile for Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai. Those with player profiles also have a 
beside their names in the player roster.
To sign-up for Gerber Analytics, please click here.
September 9, 2012: The Reynoldsburg Doubles Tournament and numerous dual matches were played yesterday. Reynoldsburg and DeSales tied as champions. Third and fourth were Gahanna and Thomas Worthington, respectively. Dublin Jerome defeated both Lakota East and Magnificat -- both were 5-0 scores. Watterson went on a road trip to Mason. They defeated Mount Notre Dame and Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit.
There were numerous matches involving the top players. Dublin Jerome's Emma Stein defeated Magnificat's Emily Witt; Dublin Jerome's Lauren Bellinger beat Lakota East's Maddy Mueck; and Watterson's Lauren Ghidotti defeated Walsh Jesuit's Katelyn Hissong and lost to Mount Notre Dame's Sandy Niehaus. Dublin Jerome's Ellee Bullock also defeated Lakota East's Paige Silverberg.
Voting begins today for the top central Ohio girls teams. Please sign-in first. The goal is to get the coaches' poll into the Dispatch on Wednesday so please vote by Tuesday. If you do not have a good understanding of both divisions, just vote for one. If you do vote, please vote for ten schools (rather than just the top five). The Matrix Report will make it much easier to identify the best teams.
Matches scheduled for Monday include: Canal Winchester versus Hamilton Township; Dublin Coffman versus Thomas Worthington; Whetstone versus Briggs; and Worthington Christian versus Wellington.
September 8, 2012: There was just one match reported yesterday. Westerville North defeated
Mount Vernon.
The order at the top of the Ace Report remains the same. Hilliard Bradley's Ashley Thai and Lauren Thai lead the list, followed by Jane Haffer and Olentangy's Megan Brdicka.
Voting for the top ten Division 1 and Division 2 girls teams will begin tomorrow. Please familiarize yourself with the Matrix Report. It is the best way to evaluate teams.
The poll question today reflects the amount of interest that each Girls Team draws. The answer to this question will be released in a few days.
The Top Players list will be updated tomorrow. Please note that Olentangy Orange's Anna Sanford will not play high school tennis this year. Anna had a USTA match on Labor Day, and the OHSAA has a rule that prohibits outside-of-high-school play on Labor Day and beyond. Please let me know if you are aware of an Ohio team that played a tennis match on Labor Day.
The rain may delay matches today. Please check with a player or coach prior to making plans to watch high school tennis.
 |
Beechcroft Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Among the Top Players, New Albany's Francesca DiLorenzo defeated Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger and Wellington's Aashika Katapadi Columbus School for Girls' Mary Anne Click.
Thanks to Karen Eldridge who has been a steady source of pictures this season. She has been very helpful to take pictures against Whetstone opponents. Pictures are still being accepted, but I will need permission from the photographer if it is a professional picture..
There are no matches scheduled for tonight. Reynoldsburg is holding its tournament tomorrow.
September 6, 2012: Of the 18 matches played yesterday, five were 3-2 contests. Independence defeated Beechcroft; Pickerington North beat Olentangy Orange; Hilliard Davidson defeated Delaware Hayes; Central Crossing beat Whitehall; and Pickerington Central defeated Hilliard Bradley in the OTCA Tournament. Also in OTCA play Dublin Jerome defeated Watterson, 4-1.
There were numerous matches among the top players. They included: Watterson's Lauren Ghidotti defeated Dublin Jerome's Lauren Bellinger; Dublin Jerome's Sarah Stein beat Watterson's Courtney Brown; Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai defeated Pickerington Central's Kyah Thomas; Hilliard Bradley's Ashley Thai beat Pickerington Central's Nithya Raya; Dublin Coffman's Ashwatha Thenappan defeated Bexley's Becca Landon; and Olentangy Liberty's Alexia Meyer beat Worthington Kilbourne's Kelley Jiang.
There are numerous interesting matches tonight. They include: Upper Arlington versus Olentangy Liberty; Columbus Academy versus New Albany; Dublin Coffman versus Gahanna; and Olentangy versus Village Academy.
Note: The results from yesterday are now online.
 |
Lexington Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, 2010's D1 State Champion, Sandy Niehaus, of Mount Notre defeated 2011's D1 State Champion Ursuline Academy's Mehvish Safdar. Click for the 2011 draw.
In tonight's matches, it is Bexley versus Dublin Coffman; Dublin Jerome versus Watterson; Grove City versus Westland; Hilliard Davidson versus Olentangy; and Olentangy Liberty versus Pickerington Central.
 |
MIfflin Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
September 4, 2012: Play resumes tonight. Interesting matches include: Big Walnut versus Watkins Memorial; DeSales versus Columbus School for Girls; Gahanna versus Reynoldsburg; Groveport versus Lancaster; and Worthington Christian versus Hartley. As always, check with a coach or player prior to going to these matches. Schedules frequently change.
No, I didn't take the day off yesterday, but it will not be obvious what I worked on for the next few days. (Some of you may notice though.)
September 2, 2012: Remember in the movie, Matrix, when Trinity had to quickly learn how to fly the Bell 212 helicopter? There was a new tennis report that was launched during the boys season that is just like it -- but it is for tennis data. Now the girls' version is available. It is coined the Matrix Report, and it provides all of the information needed to rank the top ten girls teams in each division.
The report is heavily hyperlinked (for those teams in the Central District), and it allows users to jump all over the place to compare teams.
You have to be a paying user to access it.
Voting for the top teams begins this week.
There were minor changes to the Top Players report. Some teams have barely played and others are in mid-season form so this list will continue to be in flux. Also note that some players have not been able to play and others are injured. If you have not had an opportunity to read the Frequently Asked Questions associated with the report, please do so.
 |
Thomas Worthington Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, West Holmes' Rachel Nelson defeated Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger, 6-3, 6-2. Nelson is the reigning Division 2 State Singles Champion. (Click for States draw.)
Coaches and parents who are members may now enter Aces using the the link on the Aces Report. Please enter aces on the same day of the match (but no later than one day after the match).
 |
Olentangy Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
August 31, 2012: This season is flying by. There have already been 170 dual matches recorded. The 3-2 matches included: Dublin Scioto defeated Hilliard Davidson; Village Academy beat Wellington; Upper Arlington - B defeated DeSales; and River Valley beat Delaware Hayes. The Dublin Scioto versus Hilliard Davidson match included three 3-setters.
Among the top players, Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger defeated Bexley's Becca Landon.
I have been in catch-up mode on a number of things. The re-alignment associated with the Ohio Capital Conference is done. Please send me a feedback if you see anything amiss. I have almost finished processing the team pictures. Please contact me if you would like for your team picture to be displayed online. (Pictures taken by a professional will require their permission.)
Westerville South and Worthington Christian are scheduled to play tonight. Pickerington North has a tournament tomorrow.
August 30, 2012: There were numerous close, 3-2, matches yesterday. They included: Independence defeated Africentric; Marion-Franklin beat Briggs; Ready defeated Fisher Catholic; Westerville Central beat Delaware Hayes; Hilliard Davidson defeated Olentangy Orange; and in OTCA play, Reynoldsburg beat Gahanna. In another notable match, Upper Arlington defeated Watterson, 4-1.
 |
Whetstone Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Among the top the players, Upper Arlington's Elaine Cloern defeated Watterson's Lauren Ghidotti; Pickerington Central's Kyah Thomas beat Bexley's Becca Landon; and Upper Arlington's Audrey Berger defeated Watterson's Courtney Brown.
The Ace Report is updated. The top three servers are: Hilliard Bradley's Ashley Thai, Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai, and New Albany's Jane Haffer.
Tonight's matches include: Bexley versus Columbus Academy; Grandview versus Granville; Grove City versus Ready; Hilliard Davidson versus Dublin Scioto; New Albany versus Olentangy Liberty; Olentangy Orange versus Worthington Kilbourne; and Worthington Christian versus Columbus School for Girls.
August 29, 2012: Seventeen matches were played yesterday. There were just two, 3-2, matches -- Pickerington North defeated Lancaster and Watkins Memorial beat Mount Vernon. Big Walnut won its contest against Delaware Hayes, 4-1, but it included three 3-setters.
There were no matches among the top players.
A common question that receive from parents is about the potential of their child playing college tennis.
Central Ohio has over 60 players who compete in college -- most of whom play at the Division 3 level. If you are curious how your child's skills compare with those who compete in college, please familiarize yourself with those playing in college by clicking here. (Your player may have even competed against one of the college players while they were in high school.) Next, go to a college match and watch the players. Most college teams have a fall schedule that includes three or four matches. Finally, have your child contact a few college coaches and express an interest.
If nothing else, it is fun to check out how much the kids have changed since their high school days. In most cases, high school pictures are used in the above report. Most colleges include photos for each player.
Also become familiar with TennisRecruiting.net. Most college coaches use that web site for USTA results, and many Ohio coaches refer to this web site for high school results.
Tonight's matches include: Bexley versus Pickerington Central; Centennial versus Whetstone; Hilliard Bradley versus Olentangy; Hilliard Davidson versus Olentangy Orange; and Upper Arlington versus Watterson. |
New Albany Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
August 28, 2012: The rain did not cancel all of the matches yesterday. Five matches were recorded. Hilliard Bradley won the Hilliard tennis crown by defeating Hilliard Davidson, 3-2. In other matches, Pickerington Central beat Grove City; West defeated Africentric; Worthington Christian beat Westerville North; and Grandview defeated Hamilton Township.
Matches tonight include: Big Walnut versus Delaware Hayes; Grove City versus Groveport;
Olentangy versus Olentangy Orange; Olentangy Liberty versus Upper Arlington; and Reynoldsburg versus Pickerington Central.
August 27, 2012: My List of Central Ohio's Top Players underwent major changes during the boys season to include all of the matches for each player on the Top Singles and Watch Lists. The Watch List was also expanded to include more players. Since there is so much information being provided, members may sign-in and see the results for players on both lists. Non-members may see the details for the Top Singles players. Since many college coaches refer to this list, as a courtesy to my paying members, their players' individual matches are also included despite which list they are on.
The rankings changed substantially over the weekend and more players were added to the Watch List. Please remember that this list is influx during this time of the year.
In comparison with the boys, there are far more girls on the Top Singles and less on the Watch List. I would rather have it closer to what is done for the boys, but the girls in central Ohio (and throughout the state) are extremely talented this year so having more girls on the Top Singles list is warranted. Please also note that players start on the Watch List. Some eventually move to the Top Singles List -- others do not. Coaches [and this is where I would have included "and parents"] may contact me if they feel that one of their players should be considered for one of the lists.
There is still not a great mechanism in place to handle doubles specialists or great singles players (who play further down the line-up and do not get to compete against other strong players). I will continue to give this more thought.
All of the individual matches for the Watterson tournament are now included online under their respective team pages..
Interesting matches, which will hopefully be rained out today, include: Centennial versus Fisher Catholic; Delaware Hayes versus Westerville Central; Olentangy Liberty versus Worthington Kilbourne; Westerville North versus Worthington Christian; and Whetstone versus Independence.
August 26, 2012: It was a great day for tennis yesterday. Three tournaments were played in central Ohio, rather than the two of which I was aware. The tournaments were held at Watterson, Teays Valley, and the surprise tournament was at Pickerington Central. Columbus Academy was also involved in two out-of-town matches with Wyoming and Indian Hills, winning 5-0, and 4-1, respectively.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Row 1: Columbus School for Girls' Gabby Kennedy high-five's Paige Quinton. Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai, Worthington Kilbourne's Kelley Jiang;
Row 2: Hilliard Bradley's Ashley Thai,
Olentangy Liberty's Alexia Meyer,
Watterson's Katie Shepherd;
Row 3: Watterson's Caroline Wong, New Albany's Jane Haffer,
Olentangy Liberty's Sonia Chhabria. |
||
As many of you already know, this web site offers something a bit different every season. Our daughter's new camera is giving me an opportunity to experiment with more action photos. Doing this is extremely time consuming, but I will try it once in while. Pictures to the right are from the Watterson tournament. Some are not as focused as I would like, but the Park of Roses is not a photograph-friendly facility. The heavily treed site was perfect for a hot, sunny day though!
Pickerington Central won its tournament and New Albany won the Watterson tournament. Please refer to the Top Girls report and the individual team reports for the results.
 |
Bishop Hartley Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
There are two major tournaments today. One is hosted by Watterson and the other by Teays Valley. The Watterson tournament will be at the Park of Roses. See you there.
 |
Worthington Christian Tennis Team - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Watterson's Lauren Ghidotti defeated Dublin Coffman's Ashwatha Thenappan and Watterson's Courtney Brown beat Dublin Coffman's Ashley Tan.
Not all coaches provided their schedules, but of those that did, there are just two matches scheduled. They are Reynoldsburg versus Chillicothe and Thomas Worthington versus Worthington Christian.
There are two big tournaments on Saturday. Watterson and Teays Valley will host them. The Watterson tournament will be held at the Park of Roses. I will be at the Watterson tournament tomorrow.
 |
Columbus School for Girls - Click to enlarge |
There were several matches that included the top players. Hartley's Rachael Morales defeated DeSales' My Linh Li; Dublin Jerome's Lauren Bellinger beat Springboro's Aundrea Busse; and Dublin Jerome's Sarah Stein beat Springboro's Julie Brockman.
There will be numerous great matches tonight. They include: Bexley versus Thomas Worthington;
Columbus Academy versus DeSales;
Olentangy versus Pickerington Central; Olentangy Liberty versus Olentangy Orange; Reynoldsburg versus Columbus School for Girls; Watterson versus Dublin Coffman; Westerville Central versus Pickerington North; Worthington Christian versus Granville; and Worthington Kilbourne versus Hilliard Davidson.
 |
St. Francis DeSales - Click to enlarge |
Several of the top players competed against each other. They included: Dublin Jerome's Lauren Bellinger defeated Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai; Hilliard Bradley's Ashley Thai beat Dublin Jerome's Sarah Stein; and Hartley's Rachael Morales defeated Wellington's Aashika Katapadi.
The Ace Report has (finally) been updated. There may be a few aces that have not yet been recorded, but the current leaders are: Hilliard Bradley's Ashley Thai; New Albany's Jane Haffer; and Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai.
Tonight's interesting matches include: Bexley versus Gahanna; Columbus Academy versus Olentangy Liberty; DeSales versus Hartley; and Hilliard Davidson versus Hilliard Darby. [This list of upcoming matches was incorrectly shown yesterday.]
 |
Bishop Watterson - Click to enlarge |
Among the top players, Hilliard Bradley's Lauren Thai defeated DeSales' My Linh Li; New Albany's Francesca DiLorenzo beat Watterson's Lauren Ghidotti; and New Albany's Cristina DiLorenzo defeated Watterson's Courtney Brown.
The Top Players List is available, but please note that this version largely just removes the graduates from last year. This list will be updated during the weekends, and new additions and ranking adjustments will be made s-l-o w-l-y. Also note that it is very difficult to evaluate strong players if they are not playing against other strong players.
Still on the to-do list is to create the first Ace Report of the season.
 |
Pickerington Central - Click to enlarge |
August 20, 2012: I took several team pictures at the Columbus School for Girls doubles tournament. Pickerington Central 's photo is shown to the right. Please note that this picture can be enlarged by clicking on the photo.
Yesterday was consumed with moving my daughter into Ohio State. More changes will be made today.
When I can borrow my daughter's camera, I will take more action photos. I plan to attend the Watterson tournament this weekend.
 |
|
 |
|
Pictures from the CSG Doubles Tournament - Watterson's Lauren Ghidotti
(above) and DeSales's My Linh Li
- Click to enlarge |
|
In other matches, Whetstone defeated Fisher Catholic, and Chillicothe beat Olentangy Orange in OTCA tournament play.
Interesting matches for Monday include: DeSales versus Hilliard Bradley; New Albany versus Watterson; and Olentangy Liberty versus Dublin Jerome.
More changes will be taking place today including updates for the: Top Players, league changes, and Ace Report.
August 18, 2012: The 3-2 matches yesterday included: Sycamore defeated Columbus Academy; Chillicothe beat Dublin Scioto; and Grove City defeated Grandview. Another significant match from a state polling perspective is that Upper Arlington defeated Hathaway Brown, 4-1.
Among the top players, Hathaway Brown's Ariana Iranpour defeated Upper Arlington's Elaine Cloern and Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger beat Sycamore's Alexandra Abele.
Today should be a great day for the Columbus School for Girls' doubles tournament. The teams in the tournament are Bexley, Columbus School for Girls, DeSales, Hartley, Hathaway Brown, Lexington, Pickerington Central, and Watterson.The individual scores will be added by early this afternoon.
August 17, 2012: The good weather continues. Twelve matches were played yesterday. There were numerous 3-2 matches. They included: Whetstone defeated Hamilton Township; Hartley beat Olentangy; DeSales defeated Pickerington North; Olentangy Liberty beat Columbus School for Girls; and Teays Valley defeated Jonathan Alder. Columbus Academy also defeated Lexington, 4-1.
Among the top players, Hartley's Rachael Morales defeated Olentangy's Megan Brdicka, and Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger beat Lexington's Elise Betscher in a 3-setter.
Today's matches include: Columbus Academy versus Sycamore; Reynoldsburg versus Watkins Memorial; Upper Arlington versus Hathaway Brown; and Worthington Christian versus Ready.
Columbus School for Girls has its doubles tournament tomorrow. I will be there before play starts to take team pictures.
Please note that there are now numerous articles from ThisWeek Sports that were recently written. Links to those articles are included on the team pages.
August 16, 2012: Nine matches were reported yesterday. The 3-2 matches included: West defeated Jonathan Alder; Hilliard Darby beat Delaware Hayes; and Hilliard Bradley defeated Hilliard Davidson. Both New Albany and Pickerington Central defeated Northeast District's Hudson with 5-0 scores. The Pickerington Central versus Hudson match included three 3-setters.
Among the top players, New Albany's Francesca DiLorenzo and Pickerington Central's Nithya Raya beat Hudson's Kati Mdzinarishvili by the scores of 6-0, 6-0 and 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, respectively.
Many team schedules have been added. This information was either entered by the coaches or gathered from ThisWeek Sports. Paying members may see all of the upcoming matches in one convenient place by clicking here. Interesting matches tonight include: Bexley versus Wellington; Big Walnut versus Westerville South; Columbus Academy versus Lexington; Hilliard Davidson versus Thomas Worthington; and Olentangy Liberty versus Columbus School For Girls.
Over the weekend, the 2011 data will be removed, the Top Players' List will slowly start to change, and the Ace Report will be updated.
August 15, 2012: The season is picking up steam with eight matches recorded.
Columbus Academy defeated both Mount Notre Dame and Lakota West. Olentangy beat Big Walnut. Westerville Central defeated Wellington in a close, 3-2, match.
Among the top players, Lakota West's Tori Turner and Mount Notre Dame's Sandy Niehaus defeated Columbus Academy's Andrea Ballinger.
August 14, 2012: This is the transition period of the season for this web site. The season just started yesterday and many teams do not have matches for a few days. Rather than have school team reports that are largely "empty", results from this season will be weaved in with last year's. The Top Singles Players and the Ace Report will be updated over the weekend.
There were seven matches from last night. New Albany started the season with two big wins over Westlake and Lexington, which are two historically strong teams. Hartley also beat Grandview. North Canton Hoover defeated Columbus Academy. Bellefountaine beat Marysville, and Watkins Memorial defeated Hamilton Township
Among the top players, New Albany's Francesco DiLorenzo defeated Westlake's Lauren Golick, who finished 4th in Girls States last year. New Albany's Cristina DiLorenzo also beat Julia Dunbar.August 13, 2012: Matches start tonight.
| Player | School | District | Year/TR Rank |
| Brooke Broda | Lakota West | Southwest | 2014 - 13 |
| Kennedy Shaffer | St. Ursula Academy | Northwest | 2015 - 17 |
| Francesca DiLorenzo | New Albany | Central | 2015 - 19 |
| Anna Sanford | Olentangy Orange | Central | 2014 - 41 |
| Mehvish Safdar | Ursuline Academy | Southwest | 2014 - 46 |
| Danielle Wolf | Country Day | Southwest | 2015 - 67 |
| Aundrea Busse | Springboro | Southwest | 2014 - 69 |
| Sandy Niehaus | Mount Notre Dame | Southwest | 2013 - 74 |
| Lauren Ghidotti | Watterson | Central | 2014 - 116 |
| Lauren Golick | Westlake | Northeast | 2013 - 116 |
| Emma Stein | Dublin Jerome | Central | 2015 - 119 |
| Rachel Nelson | West Holmes | Central | 2013 - 120 |
Competition will be ridiculously good in central Ohio and throughout Ohio this season. There are nationally ranked players in every part of the state. The table to the right includes those Ohio players with a TennisRecruiting.net national ranking of 120 or better in their respective age groups.
Other central Ohio players who are highly ranked include (in alphabetical order): Eleanor Bullock (Dublin Jerome), Lauren Bellinger (Dublin Jerome), Cristina DiLorenzo (New Albany), My Linh Li (DeSales), Caitlyn Merzbacher (Dublin Jerome), Rachael Morales (Hartley), Sydney Power (Olentangy Liberty), Sarah Stein (Dublin Jerome), and Lauren Thai (Hilliard Bradley).
July 28, 2012: Changes are underway in preparation for the girls season. To sign in or to join, please click on the links in the upper right hand corner of any screen. This change makes both of these actions easy to perform on any tennis page.
July 13, 2012: As a reminder to a previous posting, the Mary Diaz and William Copeland, Jr. 
Memorial Doubles Tennis Tournament is this coming weekend, July 20-22. This is one of the most enjoyable tennis events of the summer and it is also for a great cause. Proceeds go to help combat pancreatic cancer. Click for more information. There is still time to sign-up and participate. Please do so now!
June 15, 2012: There have been several noteworthy articles since the last posting.
The City League named their All City first team lists. This was posted in today's Columbus Dispatch. They are: Samuel Zafris and Rafael DeCarvalho (Centennial); Karshe Ali and Tyler Weisent (Whetstone); Brennon Woodly (Eastmoor Academy); Alejandro Nunez (Northland); Santiago Farias (West); and David Beyene (Beechcroft). The first team doubles players are: Mohammad Sharif-Harley Tripp and Andrew Gabalski-Matthew Ray (Whetstone); James Oatney-Slobodan Zecevic (Centennial); and Marcos Gasca-Sothorn Phin (West).
The All-Mid State League and Central Catholic League choices are here.
There was a recent article in the Dispatch about the French Open. Upper Arlington coach, Amos Allison, is quoted. The article is here.
Being familiar with the web site, TennisRecruiting.net, is a requirement for those players who are interested in playing college tennis. Here is a great article about the web site. (This article was highlighted in the ZooTennis blog.)
The TennisRecruiting.net web site announced those Division III Men's and Women's tennis teams with the best recruiting classes. None of the teams listed central Ohio players as their top recruits. Case Western had the most Ohio players on the list with three women and one male. For those interested in playing college tennis, please consider comparing your current skills with these players.
June 7, 2012: I was very pleased to read that the Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association will be seeding the OTCA tournament next fall for the girls. I have not been involved with high school tennis for that long, but this has been a discussion topic since the time my son was a freshman in 2005. It is great that it finally happened. For the girls' draws, please click here.
Since the State Lacrosse Championships were in Worthington on Saturday, I thought it might be worthwhile to watch my first lacrosse game. It was the Division 1 championship matchup between Upper Arlington and Dublin Jerome. I wanted to see for myself why tennis is starting to lose the children of tennis parents and the younger siblings of high school tennis players to this sport.
It did not take long to get a sense of the crowd. I got there five minutes before the start of the game and had to walk 65 yards to the end of the line to buy a ticket for $7. The crowd was loud and pumped.
You can get a better sense of the game by watching the video. Lacrosse uses a combination of skill, speed, and fakes. It is a cross between soccer, football, and hockey but it appears to grab the better elements of each game. It is also not bogged down with endless penalties, fouls, and injuries. Unlike soccer and hockey games, where I like to take naps between the scores, the final score was 7-6.
Also included is footage from the celebration at the end of the game. Obviously, the crowd was enthusiastic but also note the younger kids who were mingling around. We might be able to get these younger kids to switch from lacrosse to tennis in their 30's, but it is unlikely to happen while they are in high school.
From my perspective, lacrosse is making changes that benefit the sport and the players, and they are making these changes far faster than tennis can. I spoke with a Cincinnati tennis parent who was in Columbus a few weeks ago with his son who plays lacrosse. His middle school son was playing in a massive 88 team lacrosse tournament in Dublin and the organizers had broken the teams down into groups based on their won/lost records and strength of schedules. The parent told me that the groups were "spot-on" based on ability. Again, this was for a middle school tournament. How long did it take high school tennis to figure out: 1) that we should have a seeded state team tournament, and 2) how to actually seed the teams? 10 years? 15 years?
The Ohio High School Lacrosse Association web site for the boys is here. The lacrosse association for the girls is here.
As we all know, high school tennis is a great sport but we are getting bogged down on decisions that the other sports make quickly. We also are not keeping up with the changes that other states are making to improve their tennis programs. Tennis is in competition with other sports. We need to constantly look for ways to make it better for the kids and the sport in general. We also need to focus on ways to improve tennis throughout the state rather than trying to create an edge or an advantage for a particular district. We do have the best sport -- let's keep finding ways to make it even better.
June 2, 2012: My List of Central Ohio's Top Players has been updated to include the players who qualified for States or who played exceptionally well at Districts. The new players on the list include: Columbus Academy's Evan Alexander, Dublin Coffman's John Buchan, Dublin Coffman's Leon Cai, Dublin Jerome's Jared Judson, Big Walnut's Nathan Randall, Bexley's Max Schottenstein, and Bexley's David Seckel.
Pictures for Village Academy and Groveport's District Doubles Team are also now online.
May 31, 2012: All of the processing for the Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association Tournament is finished.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Pictures (l-r) Row One: Cincinnati Country Day, Copley. Row Two: Lexington, Springboro. Row Three: St. John's Jesuit, University School - Click to enlarge |
|
Click on the school name to go to the results for Cincinnati Country Day, Copley, Lexington, Springboro, St. John`s Jesuit, University, Bexley, and Upper Arlington.
As I was taking pictures and talking with coaches, fans, and parents, I constantly heard "I wish we had this web site for our district". Well, you can if there are enough coaches and fans in your district who are willing to become paying members, and if there are indoor clubs who will advertise. It takes an enormous number of hours to keep this site updated, but it can be expanded to other districts if there is interest. Contact me via Feedback if you have any questions, or if you can commit to being a paying member next season.
For that matter, if you are a Central District parent and you have a player on the Top Players, Watch, or Doubles List, you are absolutely benefiting far more than the $14.95 membership fee [$24.95, effective May 13] because the media and college coaches are heavily monitoring these lists. If you are not currently a member, please consider becoming one. For those who have players who are not on these lists, the Player Profiles (i.e. Matt Wareti) are another great way of reaching out to college coaches.
Another common comment that I heard was that lacrosse is encroaching into tennis. It is not only taking athletes away who might otherwise be playing tennis, but it is also receiving more media coverage. Lacrosse does not recognize its athletes as tennis does with this web site, but it likely will at some point. If this web site is to stay in front of lacrosse (and the other sports), more paying members are necessary. Click to sign-up.
| Article | Newspaper | Reporter |
| OHSAA boys tennis: Orange's Max Kan, Hawken doubles team bring home Division II state titles | Cleveland Plain Dealer | Joe Maxse |
| OHSAA boys tennis: Westlake's Colton Buffington wins Division I singles title | Cleveland Plain Dealer | Joe Maxse |
| OHSAA state boys tennis: Area players reach Saturday's semifinals in singles, doubles | Cleveland Plain Dealer | Joe Maxse |
| Mason duo takes state tennis title | Cincinnati Enquirer | Jarrod Ulrey |
| High-school tennis: Comeback attempt fizzles for Wareti | Columbus Dispatch | Brian Inglis |
| Maumee Valley duo, Perrysburg's Schorsch advance to semis | Toledo Blade | Jarrod Ulrey |
| Schorsch 4th in Division I singles | Toledo Blade | Jarrod Ulrey |
May 29, 2012: News coverage continues about the State tournament and the Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association tournament. The links to the articles are in the table.
There was also great college tennis news. Ohio State's Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola won the NCAA Division I Doubles crown.
The results from the OTCA tournament must still be processed before they are included in the database.
May 28, 2012: The Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association Division I champion is Upper Arlington. Upper Arlington defeated Springboro, 3-0, in the finals. The Division II champion is University School. University School beat Lexington, 3-0.
The third and fourth place finishers in Division I were St. John's Jesuit and Copley, respectively. The Division II third and fourth place finishers were Cincinnati Country Day School and Bexley, respectively.
The complete results are in the image to the right. Click on the image to enlarge it. It will be necessary to zoom in to view the results.
Click on the link to view a video of the championship point for the Upper Arlington versus Springboro match. It is somewhat difficult to see it. Springboro's Zach Berry is serving to Upper Arlington's Stu Little on the third court.
Results for the State and OTCA matches will be entered in the databases at some point today.
May 27, 2012: It was a brutally hot day at States today. The Northeast won three of the four championships -- Division I and II Singles and Division II Doubles.
Pepper Pike Orange's Maksim Kan dominated the Division II draw losing only five games during the entire tournament. The runner-up in Division II was Cincinnati's Patrick Wildman.
In the other matches, Westlake's Colton Buffington defeated Lakota East's Zach Mueck, 6-2, 6-3, in the Division I Singles. Division I Doubles was won by Mason's Miquel Cepeda-Luke Tsai over Sycamore's Yuri Karev-Nakul Narendran, 6-1, 6-1. The battle for the Division II Doubles crown was won by Hawken's Siddarth Ahuja-Daniel Lubarsky over Lima Central Catholic's John Kidd-Alex Swick, 6-7, 7-6, 7-5. This boys high school match may turn out to be the closest match played at the new Ohio State Outdoor Varsity Courts for many years to come.
The championship points for three of the four matches are available via this link. I captured the handshake for the Kan-Wildman match, but I was too far away to get the final point because I was awaiting the championship point of the Mason-Sycamore match.
This was a great tournament at a great new facility.
Good luck at the OTCA Tournament tomorrow. I will be wearing a PanCAN shirt so please say "hi" if you see me.
May 26, 2012: It was a hot day at States yesterday and today will be just as hot. Bexley's Matt Wareti is the remaining Central District player. For the complete results, click here.
Click on the links for the Dispatch articles about the Central District participants for yesterday and today.
I was in North Carolina watching our son, Kyle, compete in the NCAA Division III Doubles Tournament and returned yesterday afternoon. Thanks to our daughter, Lauren, for making the updates for the last two days.
The database updates of the scores will be added later today. See you at States.
| Hypothetical Seeds |
D1 Players | UTR |
Hypothetical Seeds |
D2 Players | UTR |
| 1 | Jacob Dunbar | 11.78 | 1 | Max Kan | 13.44 |
| 2 | Zach Mueck | 11.65 | 2 | Asher Hirsch | 10.54 |
| 3 | Colton Buffington | 11.28 | 3 | Billy Lennon | 9.99 |
| 4 | Zach Berry | 10.20 | 4 | Patrick Wildman | 9.74 |
| 5 | Hiromi Nakayama | 10.19 | 5 | Joel Montgomery | 9.44 |
| 6 | Canyon Teague | 10.19 | 6 | Andrew Linden | 9.09 |
| 7 | Aaron Sandberg | 10.13 | 7 | Matt Wareti | 9.00 |
| 8 | Jeffrey Schorsch | 10.02 | 8 | Jake Youse | 8.95 |
| 9 | Nathan Griffin | 9.75 | 9 | John Larkin | 8.78 |
| 10 | Stuart Little | 9.69 | 10 | Mason Dragos | 8.59 |
| 11 | Dugan Delp | 8.65 | 11 | Jad Abdul-Aai | 8.02 |
| 12 | Peter Smetona | 8.20 | NR | Logan Henize | none |
| 13 | Cameron Raglin | 7.74 | NR | Reese Leibreich | none |
| NR | Alexander Lebedev | none | NR | Dhrav Yadev | none |
| NR | Steven Boslet | none | NR | Aaron Ruby | none |
| NR | Marc Sodini | none | NR | Matt Brumbaugh | none |
May 25, 2012: States are today. The table to the right provides a way in which the players could be seeded using rating data from the Universal Tennis Rating web site. This system can be used to identify competitive matches. Any match where a player is within 1 level of another (i.e. 10 to 11) should be a competitive (i.e. 6-3, 6-4) match.
Based on this information, Division 1 should have several very competitive matches. In D2, there is a clear favorite.
Again, this system is primarily used to identify competitive matches, but we will see how it might be used for seeding purposes.
Good luck at States!
May 24, 2012: States are tomorrow. Several newspapers have articles about their participants. They are Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cincinnati Enquirer, and Toledo Blade. Click on the publication names for the articles.
Since the girls were rained out last fall, the high school boys will be the first to use the great new Ohio State University Varsity Tennis Courts.
May 23, 2012: All of the draw information for States and Districts are available via the links above. The OTCA tournament draws are located here.
May 22, 2012: Congratulations to Upper Arlington and Bexley. Upper Arlington defeated Reynoldsburg, 5-0, and Bexley beat Columbus Academy, 3-1, for the right to represent the Central District at the OTCA Tournament at Hilliard Davidson on Sunday.
Among the top players, Bexley's Matt Wareti defeated Columbus Academy's Abram Schottenstein, and Upper Arlington's Stuart Little beat Reynoldsburg's Cameron Raglin.
 |
 |
 |
Doug Ganim |
May 21, 2012: Congratulations to the 2012 Boys Ace Champion, Pickerington North's Dylan Bhaerman. Bhaerman was also the 2011 champion. The top three finishers were Bhaerman, Watterson's Ryan Bibo, and Olentangy Orange's Doug Ganim. Other top servers were Watkins Memorial's Dylan Clear, Granville's Ryan Rosinski, Worthington Christian's Reid Smith and Jon Meyer, and Granville's Daniel Gardner.
| Player | School | Ace Total |
| Dylan Bhaerman | Pickerington North | 92 |
| Ryan Bibo | Watterson | 69 |
| Doug Ganim | Olentangy Orange | 60 |
| Dylan Clear | Walkins Memorial | 41 |
| Ryan Rosinski | Granville | 39 |
| Reid Smith | Worthington Christian | 38 |
| Jon Myer | Worthington Christian | 38 |
| Daniel Gardner | Granville | 38 |
Tonight, the Central District representatives for the Ohio Tennis Coaches' Association Tournament will be determined. The match between Upper Arlington and Reynoldsburg will be played at Upper Arlington for the Division I championship. Bexley will play Columbus Academy at Columbus Academy for the Division II crown. Bexley recently defeated Columbus Academy, 3-2, on May 2.
I read in an email this morning that the State draws for Division I will be random this year. We will know soon. 11:15 Update: The draws are out. For the first time since 2002, the 1 & 2 seeds of the Central and Southwest Districts are not slated to play against each other in all of the Division I Singles and Doubles second round matches. This year, just three out of four of the potential second round match-ups will be Central versus Southwest.
May 20, 2012: The pictures of the state qualifiers are now available. (Click to enlarge the pictures.) The results from yesterday's matches are included under the various team results. The table below has been updated to provide the Central District seeds.
 |
 |
If you are a regular user of this site, then you are already well aware that the OHSAA does not create random draws for States for Division I as they do for all of the other sports. For nine straight years, they have pitted the 1 & 2 seeds from the extremely strong Southwest and Central Districts against each other in the second round. If the OHSAA makes it ten years in a row and if (and it is always a big IF) the 1 & 2 seeds win their first rounds, the second round pairings will be SW's Zach Mueck vs. Hiromi Nakayama, Stu Little vs. SW's Zach Berry, NE's Colton Buffington vs. NW's Dugan Delp, and NE's Jacob Dunbar vs. NW's Jeffrey Schorsch. If the 1 seeds win, Mueck would face Buffington in the semi's and Little would face Schorsch. The doubles use the same draws as the singles.
I raised this highly irregular draw issue to the attention of the OHSAA and to the OTCA in September 2008 (click here and select "OHSAA Tennis Analysis") and provided them with ways to create fair draws ("OHSAA Proposed Draws"). Nothing has been done for the boys, but the D1 girls have used different draws since that document was released. Since this non-random draw process was started in 2003, the boys in the Central and Southwest Districts have been Champions and Runners-up for 35 out of 36 times for the Division I Singles and Doubles Championships. (Northwest's Evan Bechtel won the championship last year.) It is also unfortunate because many Central and Southwest District boys who could have made the Final Four and who could have been named, "First Team - All-State", did not since they were pitted against each other in the second round. For more details, click on Archive and view the May 23, 2011 entry. The big question is, "Will this year make it ten years in a row? ".
For Division II, the draws are more random, but it is simply not possible to create fair draws with five districts. The State Wrestlers (who have very similar "athlete versus athlete" contests) had five districts one year and there was a rebellion because it made no sense to have five districts. They quickly changed it back to four districts.
Paying members who are State qualifiers -- please look for me at States for your 6x8 picture. Special thanks go to Matt Wareti's mother, Misrak Dejene, for the Division II picture.
Archive of Postings - April 2011 to May 2012
April 11, 2010: Welcome to the remodeled, Gerber Analytics, LLC, tennis site. The goal for this site is to recognize the local players and teams and to increase the awareness of high school tennis in the Central Ohio area. For many local teams, you will find:
- team picture
- team schedule / results
- match results for every match reported to the Dispatch (plus others that are reported directly to me)
- map and directions to courts
- links to other news sources
- high school graduates playing tennis in college
This information is obtainable using the navigation bar list above.
High school coaches and fans will find this site to be useful to "scout" upcoming opponents. College coaches will hopefully use the site to identify prospects.
The data will be updated daily during the work-week and generally once during the weekends.
It also contains the data for all of the Girls 2009 season.
Hopefully this site will increase the number of fans attending high school matches and increase the level of interest in high school tennis.
The other purpose for this site is to generate revenue so that I can justify continuing with this project. There was substantial effort spent on creating this site and more time will be spent to keep it updated. There are four ways in which websites make money: impose membership fees (i.e. Wall Street Journal or JJHuddle), sell a product or service (Amazon or E*Trade), sell sponsorships, and / or generate "click-thrus" on ads.
It is a common misconception that websites generate money from simply posting ads. That's not the case. Please visit the sponsors of interest.
The goal is to provide this information to the widest group of users, including friends and relatives. Please share this site with your friends and family.
Scott Gerber
